


Forgive Me 'Cause I Love You

by Dirtyangel, The Original Dirtyangel (Dirtyangel)



Series: Forgive Me 'Cause I Love You [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2007-07-27
Updated: 2017-09-22
Packaged: 2017-12-07 07:50:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 46,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/746081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dirtyangel/pseuds/Dirtyangel, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dirtyangel/pseuds/The%20Original%20Dirtyangel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Naruto has left the Leaf, believing it's his duty. No one knows where he went or what he's been doing over the years. But after more than a decade the blond returns, uprooting a multitude of questions and feelings. This is a different Naruto, but it seems he's still number one at surprising.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. An Open Letter

**Author's Note:**

> Forgive Me 'Cause I Love You was my first fic about eight years ago, and since then I've reworked and rewritten the story. This is its second (and final) incarnation.
> 
> If you're a new reader, welcome and please enjoy! If you're an old fan, here's to finding this story a great new home.
> 
> Disclaimer: Naruto and all its characters are the properties of Masashi Kishimoto. No profit is made off of this fan-fiction story. Any additional original characters located in this story are designated at such and belong to the author, Jae (Dirtyangel).
> 
> First Published: July 07, 2004  
> Revised: June 27, 2007

 

**PROLOGUE**

_**An Open Letter** _

_My life here in Konoha has opened my eyes to the harsh reality that I don't belong here. I feel like my existence is a virus infecting this body known as the Leaf. I've dealt with the scorn, the hatred, and the ostracism given to me so readily by the villagers. I've fought these for many years and have spent most of my life trying to overcome them; but I can't find it in myself to fight anymore. Things have begun to slowly slip out of my control._

_So, here I am, writing this letter. I've put away my mask of flamboyant ignorance, so there's no more pretending. It's about time I was completely honest with you._

_I can't be here anymore and I think that's something we all know within ourselves. I've grown up in the midst of all this contempt and it gets harder each day to tell myself I don't mind. Deep down, I could never hate Konoha. It's the village that nurtured me into the person I am today. I will always love it. But I can't deny my own resentment._

_It makes me both sad and angry that I feel this way. I don't want to but I do. This happy place doesn't deserve the presence of a vile demon like me, so I have to leave._

_By the time this note is found I'll be long gone. Please, don't try to find me. I'll make sure that you don't. I've thought this through and believe that it's for the best._

_This is my goodbye. Take care of yourselves; Tsunade-baachan, Ero-Sennin, Iruka, Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke. I love you all dearly, know that, and I want you to live happily and contently, especially Sasuke. Even a teme like him holds a place in my heart._

_This is it. No more Kyuubi. Your sixteen year curse is over._

_Goodbye._

— **Uzumaki Naruto**  
 _(The Lost Rokudaime)_

_P.S._   
_Looks like you'll be holding onto that hat and cloak a little while longer, old hag._


	2. Other Side of the Mirror

**I.**

_**Other Side of the Mirror** _

In the Country of Fire, on a road northwest of the Hidden Village of Leaf, there happened to be a commotion. It was not a disturbance of the destructive kind, but one of youthful enthusiasm. The type only a child could make. This commotion came in the form of a boy.

In a flurry of dirt clouds and giggles, he hurried his way down that unsuspecting forest path with a grin on his face. In his mind he was a participant in a diligent race, one that would determine the progress of their journey. It was important that they reached where they were going or else... Well, he wasn't sure what would happen but he was pretty sure it wouldn't be good.

The little bustle of orange, yellow, and blue glanced over his shoulder, and then frowned. He skidded to a graceless halt and turned around, squinting to look into the distance. A few moments passed before a figure slowly strolled into view. At that he smiled again and agilely climbed up a neighboring tree.

"Oi, oi! Why are you moving so slowly? You're not fifty," he shouted as he sat kicking his feet from atop a sturdy branch.

The man he had addressed continued to walk at a leisurely pace, waving a dismissive hand at his statement.

"You seem to forget that traveling with you takes a lot out of a person," the adult replied.

The young boy grinned and leaned precariously forward, "You're just saying that because you're getting old." He giggled when the other—a taller, lighter blond—looked up at him with his hands on his hips.

"Old," the man said indignantly, standing directly beneath the child. "I'm not even thirty yet and you're calling me old?"

Without a care, the younger blond slipped down from his perch and into his companion's arms. "Well, you're much older than me, so that makes you old."

He pinched both of the man's scarred cheeks and tugged at them playfully. The funny grunts and groans that came from his guardian had him giggling again.

"Besides, this is supposed to be our great, wonderful adventure around Fire Country. There's no time to be slow and old."

The man made a face and then swooped down for a counter-attack. The child squealed and tried to cover his face as a form of protection from the sudden onslaught of nose rubbing. Both blonds laughed at their own antics.

"Oi, oi, can I get a piggy-back ride?" asked the youth as he pushed the man's face away.

"A ride, huh? For someone who's so full of energy don't you think you can carry yourself on your own two feet?" the man pointed out, getting a better grip on the little person in his arms.

"Yeah, but since you keep moving so slow I gotta make sure you keep up," the boy smiled. "Remember, no being slow and old on our trip!"

"When did I raise such a brat?" the man sighed with feigned exasperation, but hoisted the boy onto his shoulders nonetheless.

The child smiled happily and grasped the straw hat that sat upon the man's crown and placed it on his own. He then hugged his guardian's abundant mass of golden hair and pointed ahead further down the road.

"Onward!" he cried.

Taking a moment to shake his head and tickle the boy's side, the man set off to their next destination.

— **. &.&.—**  


He stood at attention with his hands behind him and patiently waited for the incessant scratching of the woman's pen to stop. A minute passed before it did, and when he felt he had her attention he spoke.

"The target was intercepted and disposed of fifteen kilometers northeast of Rice Country, Hokage-sama," he reported in a methodic and mechanical tone.

The older woman gave a short nod of approval and then reached for another document from one of the various piles on her crowded desk.

"Well done. Thank you, Sasuke. A message will be sent to Grass immediately," she said, quickly jotting something down.

Sasuke waited for her to continue. Finally setting her pen down, Tsunade sighed tiredly and leaned back into her broad armchair.

"Were there any complications during the mission?" she asked.

"None to make note of," Sasuke answered.

"Good," Tsunade folded her arms under her ample breasts and smiled at him kindly.

In her old age, the Sanin still continued to maintain her age-concealing jutsu. It was common knowledge that the Godaime Hokage was well into her sixties but no one had ever seen her without her youthful façade. Some villagers and even a few ninja would gossip that it was possible that she'd never aged at all or that she'd somehow come across a "fountain of youth" somewhere in her past journeys. Small children often said that she could possibly be a witch. The rest of the village knew better than to heed such rumors.

To the few who took the time to notice, there were only two circumstances in which Tsunade's appearance would betray her true age. It was when she smiled or when she was in deep thought. Sasuke observed the wrinkling that occurred around the corners of her light brown eyes and the faint creases at the edges of her mouth. Her features looked tired and weary.

"I want you to take a two week vacation, Sasuke. You've worked consecutive missions these past four months and I believe you deserve the rest," she spoke again.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," Sasuke bowed respectfully and prepared to leave the office.

"I expect you to rest, Uchiha," he heard her say from behind him. Her statement came as if it were an afterthought, soft and distant.

Sasuke glanced back over his shoulder to see Tsunade staring dolefully down at her desk. The few sheets of paper littering its surface had been pushed aside to reveal a small area of a desk calendar. Her eyes were fixated on one particular spot. Sasuke looked away. He knew what it was she was lamenting.

Wordlessly, he opened one of the office's thick oak doors and stepped out into the silent hallway. The door closed with a soft  _click_  and the ninja started down the hall.

 _It should be about eleven years by now_ , he thought idly. He wasn't quite sure, but then again, he'd stopped caring a long time ago. It was just more time and events that seemed to dissolve into the background noise he considered to be his life. Frankly, Sasuke hadn't found much that was worth caring for anymore. His existence, his whole purpose, had faded and turned trivial. Sometimes he wondered what the point of living was. Itachi was dead and his family avenged. There was nothing left for him.

Sasuke turned right and began to descend the flight of stairs that led to the Tower's lower levels. When he thought back on it he could clearly remember how disappointing slitting his brother's throat had been. The great wave of gratification he'd always hoped avenging his family would bring had never come. It was an empty accomplishment. The entire matter had been impersonal and passionless. Itachi hadn't spoken a word near the end and neither had Sasuke. In one flick of his wrist, Sasuke had ended it all and he knew that Itachi had wanted it that way. His older brother had known that the great legacy of the Uchiha clan had come to an end.

Sasuke had decided a long time before then that he no longer wanted a family. He didn't have the feelings left to put out for the effort. He had grown hard and cold over the years. Even his own father—whom Sasuke remembered as unmoving and always stoic—had been a man of some compassion, but as for himself, Sasuke didn't know.

That resolution had doused all past plans of reviving his clan. But again, all that didn't matter. Aside from his feelings, there were no women in Konoha he'd found worthy enough to marry. Most seemed little more than disillusioned whores while the rest were plainly too simple-minded. All they wanted was his name and had little to give for it.

Sasuke came to the ground level and made his way down a few more familiar halls. When he reached the Tower's reception area he found it to be mildly busy. He glanced up at a nearby wall clock. It was a little after one in the afternoon. Around the time most genin teams reported in for potential missions. Luckily, he'd never been assigned his own team.

Another reason why Sasuke felt he had no need for a family; he had a staunch dislike for children.

At that moment, the jounin's stomach gave a light grumble. Sasuke frowned, unimpressed with his own body's need for food. He had arrived back in Konoha no more than two hours ago and had had time only to drop his gear off at his apartment. Sasuke hadn't thought to eat or do much of anything else before reporting in. From the grumbling and groans his stomach continued to make, he couldn't just ignore the necessity to eat any longer. Decision made, he headed out the Tower's large glass doors and into the bustling streets of Konoha's main district.

|—.o.—|

Eleven years.

His mind dwelled on that assessment once again. It had actually been eleven whole years since that  _dobe_  had left. Time had truly flown by. Sasuke's dark brows furrowed and he scowled. It was true, a lot of time had gone by, but why was he thinking about this now? He hadn't so much as spoken the fool's name for the past five years.

A young couple steered around him while a man walking near his right side carelessly brushed past, consequently causing his and Sasuke's shoulders to touch. However brief the contact might have been, Sasuke still shot a menacing glare in the man's direction. The stranger, having caught the look from the corner of his eye, hesitated for a moment and then quickly mumbled an apology. Sasuke didn't bother to acknowledge it and walked further ahead.

He wasn't fond of physical contact beyond his discretion. Sasuke saw it as a great insult when it did happen. That kind of invasion of his personal space was much too intimate for Sasuke's liking. Unfortunately, these streets were always packed with moving bodies most of the day.

He looked around. There were still no restaurants or food stands in sight. Five minutes had gone by since he had started walking and he was getting more irritated by the second.

Although he didn't care about much and was lacking in many areas where emotions were concerned, there was a deep-seated rage that always seemed to consume him. The dark-haired jounin had always been unapproachable since his youth; but as he had gotten older he was easily agitated and could be driven to a violent anger with the slightest push. This habit had caused past subordinates to fear him and worried those who were remotely close to him, especially Sakura. She often mentioned that if he needed someone to talk to she would always be there, but that was of no real concern to him. They both knew that Sasuke would never confide in anyone.

His feelings had slowly progressed to what they were ever since that idiot had left. Sasuke had been disgusted and angered by how hypocritical the other had been. He'd thought back to the Valley and the words that they had exchanged; and the many times he had been confronted and challenged to face his own demons, only to find out that his supposed friend couldn't do the same. Those moments were worthless now.

Eleven years had passed and there was no point in dwelling on them—which meant he couldn't feel hurt.

An aroma of spices and steamed noodles wafted through the air, catching Sasuke's attention. He glanced to the side, and then stopped.

 _Oh, for Kami's sake,_  he thought to himself. Whatever higher powers that may have been seemed to have a sick sense of humor. After about fifteen minutes of walking, the only food establishment Sasuke had come across turned out to be a certain damnable ramen stand. As if to emphasize the point of irony, Sasuke's stomach made another low grumble. He growled in frustration and glared at the stand's infernal red sign that clearly and boldly stated "Ichiraku Ramen."

Sasuke was just as unimpressed with this new occurrence as he was with his slowly growing need to eat. If he had allowed himself to, he would have laughed.

He surveyed the area, hoping to find another restaurant with less significance. When he found none, his ire grew. Sasuke would be damned if he'd let whatever twisted setup of so called fate push him to eat a meal in a place attached to unwanted memories, especially on this day. And because the date happened to be what it was he preferred to ignore his grumbling stomach and head back to his apartment to make a meal there.

About to continue on in the direction of his home, he refused to glance back at the shop. Sasuke had taken no more than two steps before something short and orange came barreling in from his right and careened its way around him. Sasuke deftly avoided being knocked over by the strange apparition and watched it make a beeline for the ramen stand.

"Sorry! Excuse me!" came the belated apology of what appeared to be an overexcited child.

Sasuke frowned in distaste at the rampaging boy, but the expression immediately changed when he caught sight of the youth's messy blond hair and a painfully familiar red swirl emblazoned on his orange shirt.

"There's no way..." he murmured.

Sasuke found himself following after the boy without thinking. In five quick strides he was at the shop's entrance and brushing aside the papery film of the store banner. There, perched on one of the bar stools, was the blond boy, bouncing up and down in his seat and enthusiastically shouting his order.

"Oi, oi, 'jiisan, 'jiisan, I'd like an order of Miso ramen, please!"

The old shopkeeper seemed taken aback by the boy's abundance of energy and at first only stared. He hadn't come across someone so lively in a long, long time. It only took a moment for him to smile good-naturedly at his young customer and slap a hand down upon the counter.

"Arisu!" he shouted toward the kitchen, at his granddaughter, "Start on some of our best Miso ramen for this bright young man here."

"Yay! Thanks, 'jiisan," the boy replied with a grin.

Sasuke stood, silently perplexed, but then left his stupor. Initially, he had thought he was seeing things when he had mistakenly believed the boy to be Naruto. (A much, much younger Naruto from what he last remembered.) However, he'd come to his senses.

The kid couldn't be the person he'd thought. He was just a child. His straw colored hair was much darker and his eyes were a brilliant green. But his laugh was very much the same and so was his grin. Sasuke knitted his brows. The boy's whole persona was reminiscent of Naruto. Just who the hell was he?

Then a body came up beside him.

"Kanaye, what did I tell you about rampaging around like a wildman? I really hope I don't have to put you on a leash," said the person, a male.

His voice was deep and mature, so Sasuke surmised him to be somewhere over twenty. Both he and the newcomer turned to look at one another. But what the jounin hadn't expected was to see the distinctive features he'd wrongly assumed the boy to have. There they were: the right shade of blond, stark cerulean eyes, and the defining whisker scars of Uzumaki Naruto. All planted on a similarly shocked face as Sasuke's.

"S-sasuke?" the bewildered man stuttered.

 _I can't believe this!_ Sasuke thought, incredulously.

Uchiha Sasuke was at a complete loss for words. A severe series of events had just transpired and he was left befuddled and completely out of his element. He didn't like this uncertain feeling, so he grasped for the easiest emotion he could and acted on it. In one fluid movement, he pulled his fist back and punched the man beside him as hard as he could in the jaw.

— **. &.&.—**  


Naruto had known that from the moment they had set foot in Konoha something had been bound to happen. Experience had taught him many times in the past that whatever could happen, would happen. That, however, had not made him any less shocked when he'd followed his rambunctious traveling partner into a familiar ramen bar and was attacked by a very familiar person.

It was within the last milliseconds of his assault that some distant voice in the back of his mind reminded him to move with the inertia of the punch if he wanted to prevent his jaw from being broken.

Naruto was forced back a few steps by the velocity of the ninja's punch. A pulsating pain had flared up in his jaw the second flesh had made contact with flesh. Sasuke had hit him pretty hard. Blood began to fill Naruto's mouth from where his lip had split. He quickly spat off to the side. There was nothing he hated more than the taste of blood.

"'Tousan!"

From inside the shop, Kanaye had called out for him. Naruto moved forward to reassure the boy that he was fine when Sasuke lashed out again.

This time the dark-haired man aimed for his abdomen. Naruto's instincts told him to step to the side and knock Sasuke's hand away. Acting on pure instinctual reaction the blond made to elbow his attacker, but then hesitated.

 _What am I doing?_  Naruto asked himself. He wasn't a ninja anymore so he didn't know why he was fighting with one.

While he thought this, Sasuke—with all the grace of an elite nin of Konoha—effortlessly avoided Naruto's would-be attack and swept his feet out from beneath him. Naruto fell back onto the ground with a  _thud_.

"'Tousan!" Kanaye cried again, rushing out of the shop and to his father's side. The boy angrily shoved Sasuke out of the way and kneeled to clutch Naruto's chest.

"'Tousan, 'tousan, are you okay?" Kanaye asked, voice strewn with worry.

Naruto coughed around the dust that had filled his lungs and tried to sit up. Of all the people in Konoha he could have encountered, he had to have come across Uchiha Sasuke. The blond placed a hand on his son's shoulder and cleared his throat while getting to his feet.

"It's... all right, Na-chan," Naruto said, "I'm fine."

He ran the back of his hand across his bloodied lip and looked up when Sasuke shifted.

"Why are you here," the ninja demanded in a threatening voice.

Sasuke's posture was stiff but still on the offensive. Naruto glanced wearily at the hand near his holster. He didn't know why Sasuke had confronted him so aggressively but he didn't want this to go any further. Naruto stood straight and kept a hand on his son's shoulder.

"I'm traveling with my son, Sasuke," Naruto said, gauging Sasuke's reaction.

Sasuke's scowl deepened and his fists clenched. From the shop entrance, the owner peered out at the scene and his granddaughter looked on beside him. Outside the shop, a few passers-by stopped to observe as well. Sasuke took notice of none of this and continued.

"Exactly  _where_  have you been to get a son to be traveling with?" growled the dark-haired man.

Naruto reflexively drew Kanaye closer to him, but the boy wriggled away and stepped forward to glare chalengingly at Sasuke.

"What's it to you, jerk?" Kanaye said. He pointed angrily at the older man. "If you ever hit my 'tousan again, I'll kick you in the—"

"Woah, woah, Kanaye. Calm down," Naruto said firmly, moving a hand to sit on the boy's head.

Kanaye looked up at him with a pout, but did not say anything further. He silently fumed while still glowering at Sasuke. Naruto smiled and ruffled the child's hair, letting him know he wasn't upset. Kanaye's pout slowly melted away.

A sequence of emotions flashed across Sasuke's face but they were gone within an instant. He stood normally and looked Naruto directly in the eye. The blond man looked back worriedly and tried to puzzle out what the ninja was thinking. He was surprised when Sasuke simply turned around and walked away.

Naruto watched his former teammate's retreating back disappear with the thinning crowd. He felt uneasy. The current situation was not good.

He hadn't expected to end up in Konoha again. When Naruto had left he'd done so with the intention of never returning. That had been the plan that he'd followed for the past eleven years; but—as with all things involving his son—his plans had changed. He glanced down at Kanaye and the boy looked up.

When Kanaye had first caught sight of Konohagakure's West Gate Naruto's stomach had dropped. In his careful preparations for their excursion around Fire Country, he had made certain that their route wouldn't take them near any commercial roads leading to Konoha. No way had he anticipated Kanaye's occasional wandering to lead them there.

There had been no dissuading Kanaye from wanting to visit the village. Naruto had after all promised him a year ago that he would take the boy to see all of Fire Country outside their home, and Naruto always kept his promises. It was simply unfortunate that luck wasn't on his side this time.

Regardless, he'd now been identified by a Konoha nin and that would soon lead to bigger problems. He and Kanaye needed to leave. A determined look set on his face, Naruto turned to the shop owner, old man Teuchi, and smiled charmingly.

"Oi, 'jiisan, I think we'll need that ramen to go," he said.

— **. &.&.—**  


Sasuke breathed heavily through his nose as he walked without truly paying attention to his surroundings or the people he passed. He saw nothing past the pulsating heat of his own tumultuous emotions. Inwardly, his inner voice berated him to collect himself. He was a highly ranked jounin of Konoha, a former ANBU captain, and the last of the prestigious Uchiha clan. He would not lose his composure like a newly instated genin throwing a temper tantrum.

Sasuke might have been quicker to anger in his adulthood, but his pride never let it surpass the point he was willing to show. However, seeing Naruto had done that, like it always had. He stopped and took a deep breath, the pedestrian traffic weaving around him. Sasuke felt himself calm down and his shoulders relaxed slightly. His outward appearance had not deferred drastically from how he usually carried himself, aside from the small twitch in his jaw, but he was able to think clearer now.

Naruto was in Konoha, traveling with his son. A feeling of incredulity came over him once again. Naruto was back in Konoha with a  _son_. Sasuke couldn't believe it. The idiot had appeared out of nowhere and with a child. Standing there watching the two of them had been too much to take in his state of shock. When he had looked over at the man beside him in the ramen bar and seen that it was Naruto, a great sense of relief and betrayal had hit him all at once. It had left him so confused and unprepared that he had done the most familiar thing that would have brought stability.

 _What the hell is going on today_ , Sasuke mused. He began walking again and leapt up onto the nearest rooftop. Although he was still processing this new development, his analytical mind had already been set in gear. If Naruto was back in Konoha that meant that he was likely to leave again. The blond was by default a missing-nin, regardless of never being officially labeled as such. Sasuke was obligated to prevent him from going.

He faced the direction of the ramen bar. The closest exit from that point was the West Gate. Sasuke would have to start there.

—.o.—

When he reached the gate station things were quiet. Some meters off from his position was the gate's checkpoint—all shinobi and visiting civilians had to be cleared there before entering Konoha. Sasuke headed toward it. At the reception area sat two chuunin, a dark-haired male and a female with a strange set of pigtails atop her head. Sasuke sorted through his memory and remembered the woman as having the name Moegi. She was good friends with the late Sandaime's grandson.

"Uchiha-san," both greeted him.

Sasuke nodded but then got to the point. "Has anyone left through this gate point recently?"

Moegi shook her head. "Other than a genin team, no, Uchiha-san. Is there something wrong?" she asked.

"I'm looking for a civilian pair, a man and a child. Both blond," Sasuke said. "The man is an unreported missing-nin."

The two shinobi at the desk looked at each other and became a little more alert. This time the dark-haired chuunin spoke: "No one like that has left from here, but a few tourists checked in today. There was a man and his son. The boy was blond and so was the man. Although, you couldn't catch much of his face from beneath his hat."

"We can keep a look out for them," Moegi said after her partner.

"Do that," Sasuke instructed. He entered the booth and went directly for the communication radio in the back. He grabbed the receiver and switched to the appropriate channel.

"Com Center, this is Uchiha Sasuke, do you read me?"

"This is Com Center, Uchiha-san, over," came the immediate response.

Sasuke spoke again; "I need a message quickly relayed to the HQ manager, Umino Iruka. Tell him that Uzumaki Naruto has been spotted."

The sound of a chair toppling over came from behind him. Sasuke didn't bother turning around to see that Moegi had stood abruptly and stared at his back in shock.

"I'm sorry, Uchiha-san, but exactly who is Uzumaki Naruto," the operator asked.

Sasuke scowled. "Stop asking stupid questions and just do it!" he said more authoritatively.

There was a pause on the other end. "O-okay, Uchiha-san, message will be relayed."

From there, Sasuke signed off. He looked back at the two up front. The male chuunin looked confused and Moegi seemed on the verge of crying. At Sasuke's disapproving frown she embarrassedly tried to get herself back together.

"The man that you'll be watching for is blond-haired, blue-eyed, and has three distinctive marks on either cheek," the jounin said to her partner.

The other man nodded but glanced over at Moegi worriedly. Sasuke said nothing further and strode out of the booth, hurrying off to the next closest gate point.

— **. &.&.—**  


"What!" Iruka had shot up out of his chair the minute he had heard the message.

"That's what Uchiha-san told me, Iruka-sensei," the young man, Taku, replied.

Iruka looked down at his desk, trying to properly assess the new information. Naruto was in Konoha again after over a decade.  _Dear God, that couldn't be true, could it?_  He addressed his radio operator again.

"Is Sasuke still there?"

"I don't know, sir. He signed off so suddenly."

Iruka quickly walked from behind his desk and out of his office.

Six years before, he had retired from teaching and had taken on the position of Communications HQ Manager from an old friend of his. Iruka loved teaching at the Academy but had felt he'd needed a change. Over fourteen years, he'd taught various students, and had watched them grow and flourish to become respectable ninja. However, there had always been the guilt that reminded him of the one student he'd held over the rest and how he'd let him down. The disappointment was forever with him.

Iruka entered the radio room—down the hall from his office—and grabbed the nearest station.

"West checkpoint, this is Umino Iruka. Please respond," a sense of urgency rippled through him. He had to confirm Sasuke's message. If it were true that meant they would need to act fast.

"Iruka-sensei, this is West checkpoint. Moegi, speaking."

"Moegi, I received a message from Uchiha Sasuke stating that Uzumaki Naruto has been spotted in Konoha. Is this true?"

"Y-yes, Iruka-sensei," Moegi's voice quivered, "Sasuke-san came by earlier and had described a visiting civilian as being Naruto-niichan."

Iruka's heart gave a hopeful leap. Then it had been true. Relief washed over him in waves.

"Is Sasuke still there, Moegi?"

"No, sir. I think he left to search for Naruto."

"I see. I want you and your partner to be on the look out."

"We're already on it, Iruka-sensei."

"Good. Umino out." Iruka flipped a few switches on the circuit board and tapping into the connecting channel between the other three gates. "North, South, and East Gates, this is Communication HQ Manager Umino Iruka of Sector Three. A report has come in of a sighting of missing-nin, Uzumaki Naruto. I repeat, be on the look out for Uzumaki Naruto."

Iruka paused and thought of what description to give. It had been over eleven years and he didn't know  _what_  Naruto looked like now. He could only go by what he remembered and what he could assume the blond looked like as an adult.

"Description: male, blond, blue eyes, possible athletic build, and three markings on either cheek. If seen, orders are to apprehend but no deadly force is to be used."

Those had been the orders the Hokage had given years back when she had thought Naruto would return. Iruka knew they still stuck now. He also knew he had to report this to Tsunade as soon as possible. His attention came back to the radio when all three gates responded to his message. Iruka switched the connection off and turned to the three other operators in the room.

"I want you all to keep me updated if any other reports come in," he said.

When they nodded he rushed out of the room and to the other end of the Tower. The Hokage needed to be informed.

— **. &.&.—**  


Tsunade sat back in her chair and listened to the mission report of the jounin team she had dispatched a week ago. Among the members were Hyuuga Neji and Hyuuga Hinata.

"As far as we could tell, Hokage-sama, the group had been attem—"

There was a loud knock at the door. Each occupant of the office turned to stare at it. Tsunade frowned at the interruption. Who in their right mind would interrupt her during a debriefing?

"Who is it?" she demanded, irritation clear in her voice.

"Tsunade-sama, I apologize but I have some pressing news to report," it was Iruka's muffled voice on the other side of the door.

"Come in, Iruka."

One of the oak doors opened and a frazzled looking Iruka quickly stepped in. He bowed respectfully and started to speak: "Hokage-sama, Uzumaki Naruto has been spotted in the village."

"What was that?" Tsunade's eyes had widened and she gestured for the jounin standing in front of her to move aside. Iruka came closer.

"Approximately fifteen minutes ago a message came in via the West Gate from Sasuke saying that Naruto was in Konoha," Iruka said again.

The Hokage leaned closer and stared him dead in the eye. "Has this been confirmed?"

"Yes. Moegi at West Gate confirms that a civilian fitting Sasuke's description of Naruto had been cleared to enter Konoha earlier today."

Tsunade's lips pressed into a thin line. Eleven years on this very day the brat had left and now he'd appeared again just as suddenly as he'd departed. She turned to the two Hyuuga cousins that had been silently observing the exchange.

"You two," Tsunade said, "I want you to go and help Sasuke."

"Yes, Hokage-sama," they said in unison.

Both immediately left through a window Tsunade usually kept open. (This was mainly because some of Konoha's outlandish ninja refused to use the doors when they came to her office.) She glanced back at the remaining members of their team.

"You will have to finish your report at another time. Go home and rest."

They also left as ordered. Iruka watched them go, a concerned expression still on his face. Tsunade proceeded to inquire if an alert had been sent out to the other gates, to which Iruka replied yes. She nodded approvingly and told him to keep her updated. The chuunin agreed and then exited her office afterward.

That left Tsunade alone with her thoughts. She sighed and massaged her temples while swiveling around in her armchair to face the panoramic view of Konoha's skyline her office provided. A myriad of emotions were welling up in her but she knew she had to remain calm. She was the Hokage and needed to retain control at all times. Her emotions would have to wait until later. When she saw Naruto she would deal with the boy...

 _Naruto is no longer a boy_ , Tsunade corrected herself. (He was supposed be about twenty-seven.) The once guileless boy she'd known was a grown man. That thought turned over in her mind a few times. Eleven years worth of growth and development and she had missed it. A small part of her felt cheated.

Tsunade smiled lightly. She wondered how he would be now and how he'd matured.  _Is he still as sad?_  she thought. When she did see him Tsunade would hug him as tightly as she'd wanted to since she'd read his letter. She remembered reading the note and feeling her heart break. Why had he not told her before? Tsunade narrowed her eyes. She would also punch Naruto's face in hard, as she'd wanted to since he'd stupidly left.

— **. &.o.o.&.—**  



	3. Pleasantries

**II.**

_**Pleasantries** _

Walking through the streets of Konoha after so many years was an odd experience for Naruto. Each building and face was different from what he last remembered. Some were older and others newer but all were nearly unrecognizable to him. It was with a mixture of both relief and awkwardness that Naruto was aware that he had become a stranger to his former village. Recalling what had happen at the Ichiraku after Sasuke's departure, he admitted that the anonymity he'd gained was something to get used to.

The phrase "old habits die hard" had come to mind on seeing Teuchi's look of surprise when Naruto had asked about the man's daughter, Ayami. The blond had forgotten how long it had been. After embarrassedly stating his name and reassuring that he was who he said he was Naruto had avoided an uncomfortable interrogation with a wooden spoon and a heated spatula from Teuchi and his granddaughter. It had been understandable why they were being cautious. They had witnessed his scuffle with a Konoha ninja only moments before.

With introductions aside, the old stand owner had been taken aback by how different he looked. He was taller with broader shoulders and longer, sun-bleached hair. His body appeared toned and solid under his simple vest and slacks as if he were accustomed to days of hard labor. The baby fat he'd retained throughout his teenage years had gone from his face and had left behind a stronger, leaner profile. Naruto had never really thought about his looks since he'd left Konoha, but had found it interesting to see that reaction. When the shopkeeper commented that he had a striking resemblance to the portraits of the Fourth Hokage Naruto had thought it strange but had accepted the compliment nonetheless.

The retired shinobi shifted slightly, preventing his bag of take-out ramen from being jostled by a woman strolling past him. They had said their goodbyes to the Ichiraku and were en route to the next gate. Naruto didn't doubt that Sasuke would backtrack to search for them, so they had to move quickly. He glanced over to his right to make sure Kanaye was still keeping pace. The boy hadn't lost step but was gaping excitedly at the tall buildings and wirework that made up Konoha's vistas. His father grinned. The older man had almost forgotten how impressive new places were at the age of seven.

It was a shame that they had to leave so abruptly, but he knew—if they were to ever complete their journey or see their home again—it was a necessity. Naruto's mind was already working through all possible plans of escape. It had been easier to leave his first time around; though, he hadn't been labeled as a missing-nin then. A report of his presence must have been made. Naruto knew it was standard protocol and Sasuke was a ninja of efficiency. Whatever he came up with had to be as discreet as possible. Not only would he need the stealth but Kanaye had to remain ignorant of their development. He didn't want the boy to worry.

Naruto's eyes roved over the crowd drifting around him, looking for signs of an unusually cut head of dark hair or the fair-skinned but perpetually scowling face unique to Uchiha Sasuke. To Naruto's relief, there were none. If he were confronted by Sasuke again (or any other ninja), he would have no choice but to fight. Naruto wasn't happy with that prospect. He was a civilian  _not_  a ninja. He didn't want to retaliate as one.

His clear blue eyes lowered to the well-trodden road with a grim expression.

"How practical is that?" he mumbled, voicing his thoughts at last.

" _It isn't,"_  came a gruff but amused reply.

Naruto grimaced and shoved the unbidden voice to the back of his conscious mind. It seemed his tenant had woken up from its nap.

" _What have you gotten yourself into this time, brat?"_  the voice said, effortlessly making its way back to the forefront of his thoughts.

 _None of your damn business, fox_ , Naruto quipped.

Only when the Kyuubi deemed its presence worth announcing did he ever revert to aggressive language. The fox often worked at his nerves, especially when it was no longer scheming (as much) of ways to have Naruto release the seal. They had reached an agreement years ago that had established a common ground between them and allowed various compromises. One trade-off had involved giving the demon further access into his psyche. It hadn't delighted Naruto and he often questioned the benefits or intelligence of the concession. He knew the fox's constant plaguing was its own vindictive way of paying him back for all those years he had mocked it.

There was a moment of silence, but in his mind's eye, he could envision the enormous form of the Nine-Tails lounging on its belly with a feral grin. Each of its nine bushy tails swayed and coiled in a repetitive and languid pattern. Glowing vermillion eyes leered back at him.

" _I see. So you've finally ended up back_ there _, hmm?"_  the demon chuckled sardonically.

Naruto's lips pursed into a thin, humorless line. He said nothing, refusing to rise to the bait. Ahead of them, the crowd began to lessen. They were nearing the southern districts which would then ease into the South Gate. His fingers twitched anxiously and his brows sunk deeper. Their destination was steadily approaching and Naruto had a decision to make.

An exasperated sigh resounded through his mind and the demon flopped its tails down in a bored manner.

" _Spare me your angst-filled mental tirade, mortal,"_  it said. " _You and I know that the solution to your problem is the simple matter of a transformation jutsu."_

 _No,_  Naruto thought stubbornly,  _which part of "no longer a ninja" did you not understand?_

" _That was the stupidest resolution you have ever made. You're being foolish."_

 _And you're being a pain in my ass_   _as usual_ , Naruto growled back.

"'Tousan, why are you frowning so hard?" Kanaye spoke up.

Naruto glanced down and saw the juvenile looking at him questioningly. Kanaye had ended his gawking and had somehow slipped his small hand into his father's free one without the man noticing. The older blond relaxed and smiled weakly, gently squeezing his son's hand.

"Nothing to worry about, sport," Naruto assured him.

"Does your jaw still hurt?" Kanaye continued, taking a few steps ahead to peek at the blemish that should have been on the left side of his father's face.

The bruise Naruto had earned from Sasuke's punch had begun to heal over and only the faintest trace of darkened skin remained in its wake. Naruto reached up with his bag-filled hand and rubbed his cheek. He'd almost forgotten about his injury. It had been painful when he'd received it but the pain had subsided minutes afterwards. Naruto lowered his hand again. His and Kyuubi's natural healing mechanisms had permanently synced since he was seventeen. Naruto couldn't remember the last time he'd had a wound that lasted more than a day.

" _You mean that wasn't_ terminal _,"_  Kyuubi appended.

 _Sweet Buddha, shut up and go back to sleep!_  This time Naruto bolstered a mental wall that finally cut the demon off from his thoughts. He felt more than saw the affronted look the fox had.

"Hey, it's gone!" Kanaye beamed.

Naruto grinned and ruffled the boy's messy hair. "Of course!" he said; "This old man is a lot more resilient than you think."

His son smiled broadly and then reached for the straw hat that had hung, forgotten, around his neck. Kanaye placed it on his head while Naruto adjusted the traveling pack strapped to his back. It had been a lucky occurrence that the man had placed it on the ground by the ramen bar entrance when he had first approached the stand. None of their belongings had been damaged during Sasuke's "greeting."

"So what are we gonna do now, 'tousan?" Kanaye asked, peeking up from under the wide brim of the hat.

"Well, Na-chan, unfortunately, we're leaving."

"What? Why?" the boy pouted.

"Because, Kanaye, if we don't we might miss our train a few towns over," Naruto answered distractedly. He was back to searching for Sasuke.

"But I thought you said we had a few days until the next one left."

"Yes, but something's come up, Na-chan."

A crestfallen look settled in Kanaye's eyes, and again, Naruto felt guilty for having them leave. He sighed and kept his gaze forward. They were halfway to the southern gate point and he still hadn't come up with any plan that didn't involve some form of ninja technique.

When Naruto thought of their situation realistically, the rational side of him reasoned that they were in a shinobi village and the only way to get  _by_  a shinobi was to  _be_  a shinobi. But the bullheaded side of him remained in denial. He'd gone through too much to have to fall back on those ways. Naruto's jaw clenched as he continued his internal debate. He didn't want to be that way again, but he would have to if he ever wanted to get himself and his son out of there.

"Oi, oi, 'tousan, 'tousan!" a new burst of enthusiasm had taken Kanaye and the boy tugged at his father's hand tenaciously. "Look, look! Can we at least stop  _there_  before we leave? Please? Please, otousan?"

Confused, Naruto's eyes promptly followed the direction Kanaye had so ardently pointed out. Once he caught sight of the vendor he stopped. He stood momentarily wondering just _when_  a shop such as that had opened in south district and  _why_  it hadn't been around when he was younger. Suddenly, Naruto had a plan.

— **. &.&.—**  


"A message was received from Com Center about the missing-nin, Sasuke-san. All shinobi at this gate point have been told to be on the look out," said an older chuunin.

"I'd like to scout this gate before I head farther into the village," Sasuke replied.

"Be my guest. The more the merrier, I always say," the other ninja gave a short laugh and then walked away.

Sasuke raised a brow at the strange woman but then turned to gaze out at the gate area below. It had been a few minutes since he had arrived at the southern gate and he was pleased to learn that the operator he had spoken to hadn't been completely incompetent. Iruka had received his message. That would save Sasuke some time. Upon making his way to the south checkpoint he had spotted neither Naruto nor his son, but he knew they couldn't be too far off.

The jounin leaned forward and grasped the metal railing of the gate tower's lookout. On the ground, there was a small procession of civilians and merchants trickling in and out of the gate entrance. South Gate was one of the more heavily trafficked gates of Konoha. Most civilians—Konoha citizens and visiting ones—frequented South Gate because of the various towns and villages that lay beyond it, also located in that direction was the path of a cross-country train.

So far no one below fit the profile of the two Sasuke was seeking. Although a few father and child couples passed by, they weren't the ones he wanted. While his keen eyes continued to roam over the crowd, part of Sasuke's brain began to go over what had happened within the last hour.

In the most unlikely progression of events he had crossed paths with the one person he hadn't been sure he would ever see again. He remembered the day, eleven years ago, when he had learned of Naruto's disappearance and the morbid humor he'd found in that poetic irony. Sasuke hadn't known what to feel at that time. Now that Naruto was back, Sasuke still didn't know how he wanted to feel. The problem was that he was  _feeling_  too much and he hated the indecisiveness. But there was only one way he knew how to deal with things that seemed out of his control—he snuffed them out of existence or ignored them. For his current dilemma Sasuke felt comfortable with either one of those solutions.

Ten minutes had passed and he hadn't come across his target yet. He stood straighter and took one last look around. Sasuke had been sure Naruto would come to that gate point. It was the easiest parameter to attempt camouflage, considering the child the other man had to factor into his plans. If they weren't there he would have to continue his patrol elsewhere.

 _Perhaps he's in disguise,_  Sasuke thought as he braced the railing and swung himself over. It was a possibility and Naruto was more than capable of coming up with a decent  _henge_. The jounin landed in a crouch beneath the tower and stood. He would comb through the crowd before he moved on.

"Hey, that's a cool mask! Where'd you get it?"

"From this really cool mask shop not too far from here."

Curious as to who had spoken, Sasuke looked to his left to see two children, a boy and a girl, speaking animatedly to one another. Both looked to be around the age of six or seven and had the same shockingly bright mass of blond hair on their heads. He watched them more closely. The young girl stood with her hands akimbo and was dressed in a pale blue sundress patterned with pink spirals. Her companion sported an orange shirt and blue shorts resembling the ones Naruto's son had worn. On the boy's face was the jovially smiling likeness of a frog. The two youths were approximately six meters away from his position and unattended by any adult.

Sasuke's stare went flat when he ended his scrutiny.  _If that's supposed to be a disguise then he's losing his touch,_  he thought blandly. The ninja strode toward them. When he was within reach of the boy he grabbed the child's shoulder and spun him around.

"Hey!"

Sasuke ignored his shouted protest and removed the mask. To his surprise, a pair of angry brown eyes looked up at him.

"What's the big idea, jerk!" the boy exclaimed.

He squirmed out of Sasuke's grip and then made a face, blowing the man a raspberry before running off. Sasuke stared after him, sighing irritably. It appeared that wasn't Naruto's brat afterall.

Beside him a series of giggling erupted. He looked down to find the other child grinning, brazenly, up at him. He scowled at her when she smiled wider. The girl appeared undiscouraged by his displeasure. Inwardly, Sasuke began to question her competency; but it was then that she did something he had thought no snot-nosed delinquent would ever dare do. She kicked him in the shin.

Appalled and genuinely shocked, Sasuke couldn't stop the wince that overtook his body. However, his pride recovered long enough to refuse him the string of obscenities that were on the tip of his tongue. Somewhere in the Uchiha's mind a small voice attested that that had been one of the most undignified things that had ever happened to him. Another snarled that the little bitch had hit him right under the knee. Sasuke gritted his teeth against the sharp pain traveling up and down his leg and waited for it to ebb. His dark eyes slowly lowered to the laughing girl.

She squealed as she tried to escape the ninja's enraged grapple for her. He caught her wrist in a vice-like grip, only to feel the child burst into a puff of white smoke. Sasuke eyes widened by the slightest fraction, but then narrowed into a poisonous glare. How stupid could he have been? Of course the dead last would use  _clones_.

He spun on his heels and headed back toward the gate tower. Sasuke had gone two meters when something latched onto his leg, hindering his movement. He looked down to see the boy from before clutching his ankle and smiling at him cheekily. The jounin growled and sent a small voltage of electricity streaming through his body. With a  _pop_  the clone dispersed and he stalked forward.

"You!" Sasuke barked at a male chuunin standing in the lookout, "Have all gate activity stopped. The target is within the vicinity."

"Yes, sir!" the young man responded, immediately reaching for his earpiece. "Gate Tower 1 to Gate Tower 2 target is within the vicinity. I repeat, the target is within the vicinity."

Sasuke turned to the crowd, Sharingan ready, and prepared to search through the throng of people.

"Be aware that missing-nin Uzumaki Naruto is disguised as Uchiha Sasuke. Approach with caution. Target is disguised as Uchiha Sasuke."

The dark-haired ninja froze. His eyes snapped back up to the man above him, only to see the individual he had spoken to was no longer there. In his stead was a red-eyed of himself. The figure smirked at him with a familiar air of superiority and mocking. Sasuke stared up at the clone with a dark expression.  _That son-of-a-bitch._

"So that's what you were up to, Uzumaki," he hissed.

The two clones from before had been decoys so that another could get into place. Who knew how many more were around. Calloused hands tightened into white-knuckled fists, but Sasuke's countenance cleared of all emotion and his eyes were as hard as steel. When he found Naruto he was going to give him more than just a punch in the face.

The Sharingan slid from the doppelganger toward the chaos taking place among the restless mass of bodies. Within the bedlam were other clones depicting his lean form, pale skin and dark hair, red eyes, and muted attire. They manifested from civilians and ninja alike. Gate guards struggled to apprehend each and discern clone from civilian or possibly the real thing. The giant doors of South Gate began to close. People who had been cleared to leave hurried out while the rest were forced to stay back.

Before the doors could fully shut, a faint wisp of purple chakra caught Sasuke's attention. Among the light blue glow of the low-level chakra signatures that emanated from all non-shinobi persons, one suppressed but highly active aura moved out the gates.

Sasuke felt a wry smile trail along his lips. He hadn't expected Naruto to orchestrate such an effective strategy. In the past, the blond's brash and straight-forward techniques had often won or lost a battle for him. There hadn't been many times when he had properly planned his form of attack. This older Naruto seemed to have gotten smarter.

The fingers of Sasuke's right hand executed a series of hand seals and then his body frayed into a mist of smoke.

— **. &.&.—**  


Naruto watched as Konoha's South Gate creaked closed behind him. He breathed a sigh of relief. His plan had worked. When he had made it to the checkpoint booth he'd anxiously waited for the clones he'd dispatched to set his plan in motion. It seemed they had completed their tasks flawlessly.

Around him the discord continued while confused men and women tried to comprehend what was happening. Carriages and people pushed past one another and gate ninja stationed outside Konoha's walls tried to regain order. Naruto reached down and swept Kanaye up into his arms as a man ran by.

"'Tousan, what's going?" the boy asked, looking around through his Otafuku mask.

"Something must be happening back inside," Naruto said, pushing on. He quickly weaved through the crowd, keeping his eyes forward and brunet head down.

The costume shop Kanaye had pointed out back in Konoha had inspired this upset. Naruto had been reminded of the many pranks he once pulled as a child. The store had been filled with such an array of exotic and traditional masks he'd never seen sold in Konoha and it had made him nostalgic. There were numerous occasions during his childhood where he'd disguised himself as different people and objects to escape reprimand. It was the perfect strategy to use. The last minute decision to have each clone transform into Sasuke had simply been for old time's sake.

Grudgingly, in order for things to run smoothly, Naruto had to admit that the demon was right. His only option was to take the shinobi approach and use a henge. While Kanaye thought he had bought a wig and costume make-up, the man had changed his shaggy blond hair to a shorter, more subdued dark-brown and had alter the visibility of his six birthmarks. The look had proved useful as none of the gate ninja had suspected anything.

In a matter of minutes, Naruto made it through the muddle of travelers and onto a clearer part of the road. Satisfied with the distance between them and the gate, he slowed his pace. Naruto placed Kanaye back on his feet and took his hand.

"So, little Okame, how are you feeling?" the man asked.

Behind his mask, Kanaye snickered; "You look really funny, 'tousan."

Naruto scrunched his brows and made a silly face. He then slipped the straw hat from around Kanaye's neck. Using it to hide his face from view, he dropped his henge. Brown wasn't his color, anyway. A moment later he put the hat on his head.

"Hey! What happened to your wig?"

"It looks like your old friend, Kyuubi, took it," Naruto smiled down at the boy, referencing the stories Kanaye's mother used to tell him. In his mind, the fox snorted in annoyance. It had never appreciated being "derogated" (as it often sneered) to being the character of child's fairytale.

"Kyuubi? I thought he only came out at night!" Kanaye countered.

"He's crafty little fox. Yo—" Naruto paused in mid-sentence.

He had caught the faint whistle of something sailing through the air.  _Damn it!_  He ducked, grabbing Kanaye and then rolling out of the shuriken's range. Three of the metal spikes thudded into the ground where he had stood. Naruto rose to one knee and narrowed his eyes. It appeared that he wasn't quite home free.

Sensing something from behind him, the blond scarcely had time to push Kanaye back to the ground and intercept the leg aimed at his side. This left him unable to block the other leg that came at his head. The blow didn't make contact as Naruto's and Kanaye's bodies were replaced by the three shuriken.

"It seems like you've gotten a little better," said his attacker.

A few meters away, Naruto stood with his son in his arms and a cool, leveled stare directed at Sasuke. The ninja's dark eyes met his unblinkingly. There had been some small hope that Sasuke wouldn't have followed them, but Naruto knew it was in vain. He would have to work twice as hard if he wanted to remain a free man.

"Well, you know how things change, Sasuke," he said, forming a few hand seals.

Naruto was gone in a waft of smoke.

—.o.—

"'Tousan, please slow down! You're moving too fast!" Kanaye shouted past the wind rushing over his masked face.

"Sorry, kiddo, but I can't. Not until I lose this guy or we hit the next town," Naruto said, gripping the child tighter. The forest around them blurred by in a steady stream of green and brown as he sped from one branch to another. His sandaled feet briefly touched their surface before being propelled forward by dense chakra.

In one day, Naruto had used more ninjustsu than he had in the past nine years and it irked him. Most of his movements had been habitual behavior, but there were too many conditioned reactions his body still remembered and knew. When Sasuke had attacked he had known how to defend, what seals to perform, and what techniques to use. Naruto had spent half his life attaining this knowledge. There was no way he could have just forgotten them. Naruto frowned, disappointed. The promise he had made to himself was crumbling away and going with the proverbial wind.

Behind him, Naruto could still feel a persistent presence in the distance. It was closing the gap between them fast. Unfortunately, he had no weapons or exploding tags to use in his defense. He tried to come up with another alternative. The use of his hands for any seals was limited while he held Kanaye and he could not stop to set up any other distractions or fight.

"Naruto-kun, I must ask you to stop!"

A female form flickered into view on a tree branch ahead of him. Reaching up, Naruto grabbed a stray limb and used the momentum of his speed to swing him and Kanaye up higher into the canopy of leaves. The branches would not be as strong in that area but he needed a clear path. His son's arms wrapped around his neck and the boy buried his face into his shoulder. Naruto pivoted to the side so that his feet caught the sturdy trunk of the tree. The full weight of his travel pack bore down on him from that side long position and Kanaye clung to him even more.

"'Tousan, I don't like this," Kanaye whimpered.

"I know, I know, but bear with me, Na-chan," Naruto said, rubbing his back soothingly.

Just then a light sensation ran along the back of his left leg; and Naruto felt the chakra flowing through it flutter before his leg completely dislodged from the tree. The man's balance was thrown off, sending him toppling downward. His grip slipped and Kanaye fell loose from his arms. Naruto's heart surged to a dead halt when his desperate snatch for the boy missed.  _Oh God, no!_  he thought fearfully.

Something white streaked with black raced past him toward his son. A panicked daze and parental need to protect consumed Naruto. His nails sharpened and the color of his eye flashed to crimson. Chakra from the pit of his stomach boiled to the surface, ready to irrupt. He gave an animalist howl as he shot forward.

Before Naruto could grab a hold of his target, he was tackled from the side and both he and his assailant went crashing down to the forest floor. Branches snapped and cracked as their bodies plummeted through the trees until the ground collided into Naruto's back with a heavy  _thud_. The air was forceful knocked from his lungs, leaving him temporarily paralyzed. A hand shoved at the blond's chest and pinned him down. Naruto struggled to catch is breath and weakly gripped the other person's wrist. Disoriented, he squinted up at the figure above, eyes widening once they were trapped in a spinning red gaze. Naruto felt a great weight blanket his addled mind before things faded into darkness.

— **. &.&.—**  


Tsunade's pen glided interminably across the small sheet of paper in front of her. Her painted lips were set in a concentrated frown as she finished the last of her coded message. She set the pen down and reviewed what she had written. Deciding that the note was satisfactory, Tsunade carefully rolled it closed and placed a seal along its front end. A knock drew her attention away from her task.

"Who is it?" Tsunade asked.

"We've retrieved Uzumaki Naruto, Hokage-sama."

"Enter," Tsunade stood and stepped from behind her desk.

Both doors opened, admitting the three jounin sent to apprehend Naruto. Sasuke entered first, the body of an unconscious man slung over his shoulder, after him came Hinata, and then Neji. Noticing the child cradled in the female Hyuuga's arms, Tsunade looked at her in askance.

"Why is that boy here?" she said, taking in the youth's sleeping face and disheveled dark blond hair.

Hinata's opal-colored eyes glanced over at Sasuke, but then turned back to the Godaime Hokage.

"It seems that he's Naruto son, Hokage-sama," she replied softly.

Tsunade's slendor brows rose in surprise at her statement. The older woman looked at the boy again. As she observed him more closely she could see the similarities in his features compared to what she remembered of a prepubescent Naruto. Tsunade sighed and brought a hand up to massage her forehead. The way she would have to handle Naruto's situation had become more complex. Tsunade turned to Sasuke and gestured toward his burden.

"Sasuke, place him on the chaise by the bookshelf," she said, tiredly. "Hinata, take the little one to Sakura to have his scratches looked at. Neji, go with her."

All three nin did as told while Tsunade returned to her desk. She reopened the note she had put aside earlier and began to write again.

— **. &.o.o.&.—**  


**1\. Otafuku/Okame**  – A Japanese mask that usually depicts the painted face of a smiling woman. This character is believed to bring good luck. Another name used for this mask is _okame_  which means "tortoise."

 **2.**  Simply a reference to earlier on in the series when Naruto had transformed in to Sasuke to woo Sakura.


	4. Pleasantries: Part II

**III.**

_**Pleasantries** _

_**Part II** _

The cool air that grazed his skin brought with it a dank and musty odor. It smelled of rusting metal and long-standing water reminiscent of drain pipes. The breeze waft in from every direction; and as his senses cleared the stench became more pungent. His stomach churned and he felt ill, the metallic air was overwhelming. Naruto swallowed back the bitter saliva that had gathered in his mouth. He would never get used to the acrid scent of the tunnels that bordered Kyuubi's prison. The purpose behind their existence hadn't ever been clear to him. He often wondered if they were a creation of his own mind or the demon's presence.

He cleared his throat and swallowed a few more times, reluctantly drawing in a deep breath. His eyes fluttered open. The first sight that welcomed him was the mildewed surface of a tunnel ceiling. It was a second later that he noticed that he was lying on the tunnel's wet floor. Naruto sighed and pushed himself up onto his elbows. He stared down the dimly lit passageway ahead of him and saw nothing but an endless path that seemed to lead to nowhere. Naruto peered over his shoulder to observe the other direction. That way held no change in scenery. He frowned at the filthy concrete beneath him. Rarely did he visit these passages after he and the demon had come to their agreement. It was strange for him to have fallen so deep into his subconscious.

Naruto hoisted his body up onto its feet, and brushed the grim from his arms and pants. He looked around again, collecting his thoughts and recalling what had happened. The last thing he remembered was him plummeting through the tree branches and hitting the ground—hard. Naruto groaned at that memory—he knew he would feel that fall for days. But the idea was quickly forgotten when he realized that moments before Kanaye had slipped from his grasp. A sudden chill and panic gripped him. Kanaye needed him. Naruto couldn't believe he had been so careless as to have dropped his son.

His mind reeled with all the possible things that could have befallen the boy. Had he been hurt? Was he bleeding? Did Naruto's attacker do anything to him? For Sasuke's sake, he hoped neither of the former nor the latter had happened. If so, Naruto would hunt the Uchiha down and ensure that the man had a slow, painful, and extremely bloody death. A twinge of excitement slithered through him for the briefest instant as that image stood clear in his mind. Disturbed, he dismissed it and continued his worrying.

"I myself find a gory tussle a bit tantalizing," said a deep and voluminous voice.

Naruto whirled around and started when he saw another man looming mere centimeters behind him. Incandescent crimson eyes watched him, casually giving him a once over before returning to Naruto's blue ones. The newcomer smiled teasingly and began to circle the blond in an almost predatory manner.

"Well, what brings you here?" the man asked mockingly.

Naruto stared at the individual for a few moments, taking in his appearance. The other was a few inches taller than Naruto's six-foot frame with a similar build, flaming red hair, and copper-toned skin. He found the man's only article of clothing—a lengthy, sleeveless white robe that had been shamelessly left open—and spiral-ridden collar rather peculiar. Naruto raised a suspicious brow at his companion.

"When the hell did you start looking like that?" Naruto asked, amused.

The demon stopped its cincture and sneered at him; a pair of sharpened canines peeking out from behind its scowling lips.

"This is what this cursed thing has confines me to while I venture from my prison," Kyuubi spat, pointing contemptuously at the collar wrapped securely around its neck.

Curiously, Naruto lowered his gaze to the collar and scrutinized it a little longer. On closer inspection he noticed miniature markings painted between the gaps of each spiral. They were the same characters painted on the parchment that sealed the gates of Kyuubi's prison. It appeared that despite Naruto's choice to give the fox more freedom away from its cage the seal still maintained its hold over the demon. Naruto smiled at this new discovery. His conscience had just been eased immeasurably. Before he could make a remark about the fox's choice of attire, he felt the familiar pull of his external body coming awake. The surrounding tunnel and its heavy scent began to unravel and disintegrate. Everything was suddenly blanketed by nothingness.

When Naruto opened his eyes for the second time the ceiling was no longer blotched with brown and dark gray. It was a cool, pastel green streaked with wide strips of sunlight that were cast from large windows. He moaned in discomfort at the ache that pulsed in his lower back and radiated out to his shoulders, arms, and legs. Naruto wanted nothing more than to submerge himself into the nearest hot spring to soothe his aches and pains.

"I see you're finally awake," someone spoke.

Aware of another person's presence, he quickly sat up in the chaise lounge he been placed on. Naruto took a precursory glance around the room before his eyes landed on the woman standing an arm's-length away. It wasn't surprising to see the Godaime Hokage, but he sorely wished he hadn't. His fears were verified, he had been dragged back to Konoha.

Tsunade studied him wordlessly as he sat there. She looked as she'd always been: young, beautiful, and with breasts that defied gravity. Her face was drawn in a solemn expression as she watched him closely and her arms were folded imposingly beneath her bosom. Admittedly, a part of Naruto felt happy to see her after those long years of separation. She had been one of the few females figures that he had ever appreciated in his life. However, the feeling could not take root because Naruto's current concern was the whereabouts of his boy.

"Where's my son," he asked, foregoing any greetings or formalities.

Tsunade's brow twitched in irritation and her gaze narrowed by a few millimeters; but her authoritative stance did not change.

"He's safe," was her bare bone reply.

This did nothing to appease Naruto and he glared intensely. He refused to be intimidated by her, regardless of their history. She was keeping his son from him and that was one thing he would not tolerate. Naruto might have been forced back but he had no plans of returning to Konoha. He was no longer apart of this village, so he saw no reason for Tsunade or anyone else to try and keep him there. He had made his decision eleven years ago and he didn't—wasn't going to change it now. Ignoring his protesting muscles and aching back, Naruto got up from the couch and stood to his full height.

"Tsunade," he spoke, purposely omitting the appropriate honorific, "where. Is. My. Son?"

Tsunade was unmoved, but the older kunoichi frowned at his disrespectful tone. She unfolded her arms and placed her hands on her hips.

"Naruto, sit down," she demanded.

He didn't budge. Flecks of red began to delude the cerulean color of his irises. A heavy aura slunk into the air, coiling and contracting with each of Naruto's quickening breaths.

"If I have the tear this damn place apart until I find him, I  _will_ , Tsunade. Tell me where he is!"

The hand that struck him came swiftly and heavily. It threw Naruto off balance, forcing him to fall back down onto the chaise. In his shock, the mounting ire that had slowly been consuming him had dissipated into mild annoyance. (That was the second time he had been hit that day.)

"Calm down, Uzumaki," said Tsunade sharply; "You forget who you're talking to."

Cheek stinging and a persistent ringing sounding in his ears, Naruto said nothing. He gingerly brought his left hand up to prod his bruised cheek and assessed the damage. (Thinking clearly now, he vaguely realized that this was the same side of his face Sasuke had punched him. He was surprised he hadn't had a tooth knocked loose yet.) An exasperated sigh was huffed from where Tsunade stood a minute later and a weight settled beside Naruto on the chaise.

"You are still as stubborn as ever, Naruto, and just as infuriating."

Tsunade reached out and gently grasped the other blond's chin. Naruto watched her through the corner of his eye as she tilted his head slightly so she could properly see her handy work. An angry red patch had begun the blossom on his scarred cheek. Tsunade raised her other hand—which glowed a pleasant green—and held it over the spot. Naruto felt a cool sensation emanate from that hand, but after a few seconds, it was gone. The sting that had engulfed the left side of his face was fading.

Trailing her thumb over the healed area, Tsunade turned his face fully toward her and looked at him intently. Her eyes roamed over every feature of his face. A smile began to gradually creep upon her lips. Naruto stared at her kind expression and the different emotions hidden behind her hazel eyes. That smile made him feel as if he were thirteen again: Standing stock-still and surprised while she had placed a kiss on his forehead. The endearment was the same, and Naruto felt ashamed that he had spoken to her so roughly. His gaze averted from hers, looking down as a sign of compliance.

"Don't push your luck again, brat," Tsunade's smile dropped within an instant.

Naruto's eyes widened at her split second change and he froze.  _She's still a crazy old hag!_  he thought, perturbed.

Tsunade stood again and resumed speaking.

"Your son is currently one level below this office receiving medical attention from Haruno Sakura," she said, looking at him. Tsunade held a hand up before Naruto could respond.

"No, he is not seriously injured. The child only had a few superficial cuts."

Naruto's shoulders visibly relaxed. It was a relief to know that Kanaye hadn't been terribly hurt. He would have never forgiven himself if the news had been different. An interval of silence followed as Naruto took in what Tsunade had said. The man ran a hand through his messy locks, and let it trail down his neck and fall back onto his lap. Kanaye was safe, at least for the time being. His next priority was negotiating their release.

"Where have you been, Naruto?" Tsunade asked, dropping her Hokage façade and addressing him personally.

Naruto looked at her and paused. Her wheat blonde hair framed the visage of a woman no older than thirty-five years of age; however like this, she appeared as the seasoned kunoichi she was. The color of her irises had faded to a lighter brown during the past years and held a weariness that seemed permanently etched within their depths. It was then that Naruto saw how much older she'd become; and he couldn't bear seeing her that way. It made the reality of his absence and the changes in time more real to him. He looked away.

"I've been building a new home away from here," Naruto said, his voice low.

"And what was wrong with here?" Tsunade questioned. Her arms were crossed once again.

"You  _know_  what was wrong, Tsunade."

"Yes, Naruto, I know. But why did that completely overshadow the fact that there were people here that cared about you?"

Naruto didn't look up. Tsunade's rose-colored lips thinned as she watched him sit there. His right hand loosely gripped and massaged his left forearm, and he stared somberly at the floor. Her fair features contorted into an angry frown.

"Is your lack of response supposed to mean that  _you_  didn't care then?" she said in a clipped tone.

Naruto's gaze jerked back toward her.

"No," he stated with much conviction, "that has  _never_  been the case, ever. I've always cared about all of you."

"Then why did you leave the village, Naruto?" Tsunade pushed.

That was when the man looked away again. He fell back into his silent trance of observing the office flooring and refused to answer. The Hokage clucked her tongue in frustration and turned away from him, pinching the bridge of her nose. Naruto knew she wanted him to answer all the questions he'd left behind when he'd fled Konoha; but he couldn't. For his own sake, he couldn't do that. It would force him to remember things he didn't want to remember and relive things he didn't want to relive.

"You left once. What difference does it make that I did too? We both had our reasons," Naruto said a moment later.

Tsunade faced him with a gauging expression and continued to do so for several seconds. She mulled over something, trying to reach a decision. Finally, she came to a conclusion and then placed a hand back on her hip; her countenance impassive.

"Is there a specific reason you've returned to Konoha?" her voice had lost its intimacy and she now spoke as a Hokage.

"My son and I are only passing through. We didn't intend to stay."

"Do you realize, Naruto, that under Konoha law all shinobi are required to request permission to leave the village if their reasons are not mission related."

Tsunade watched as Naruto shifted in his seat.

"As a registered nin of Konoha you are bound to this legislation," she continued; "Failure to follow regulation results in the label of missing-nin. Once a rogue shinobi has been classified as such hunter-nin or specially assigned jounin are dispatched to either capture or terminate the target.

You, Uzumaki Naruto, have been lucky enough to have avoided official labeling and have thus not experienced aggressive pursuit."

Tsunade took a moment to observe his reaction again, but Naruto did not move. His shaggy bangs and long hair hung over his face and over his eyes carelessly, and he didn't seemed to care. She finished:

"This does not, however, absolve you of any of the consequences to your actions. That said, I have no choice but to confine you to the village under constant observation while a decision on your case is reached by the Council and I."

Naruto's hands clenched into tight fists when Tsunade ceased speaking. The muscles in his arms loosened and tensed repeatedly, the only indication of his displeasure. It was happening. The events he had been dreading for over a decade were set in motion. He was being forced back to Konoha, the source of all his problems, and caged there. For eleven year he'd tried to escape this village and all the things connected to it: Its tragedies, its triumphs, and its disappointments. Naruto had done his best to abandon them in the past with so many other unwanted memories; but he was still chained down by them. He nervously chewed on the inside of his cheek and prayed that the slight tremors running through his body and hands could not be seen. Naruto was scared. Scared of what would happen to him; but most of all, scared of what would happen to his son.

"Do what you have to," Naruto said calmly, concealing his vulnerable state. "But do not involve Kanaye. He is not a Konoha citizen and therefore cannot be held to any Konoha laws."

"He won't," Tsunade replied.

He nodded minutely and sat up straighter. His hands cupped his knees while he took a deep breath. Naruto mentally prepared himself for what lay ahead. He would get through this like he'd gotten through everything else. It was only a matter of doing so in one piece.

"I want to see him now," he stood up.

The Hokage consented and escorted him to the door.

—.o.—

Once they left Tsunade's office no other words were exchanged between them. She walked a few paces ahead of Naruto as they navigated through the halls a level below the Hokage's office. The passages were brightly lit with walls that were a soft cream color and highly polished wooden floors. An ever present quiet hung over them despite their echoing footsteps—it made Naruto tense. Occasionally, a medic-nin would pass them, greeting Tsunade politely and eyeing Naruto curiously. None of their gazes lingered too long as they continued on to their predetermined destinations. From the stilted atmosphere and medical personnel, it was as if they were in a hospital.

"This is an in-house laboratory I established five years ago," said Tsunade, as though reading his thoughts.

She peered over her shoulder at him and his eyes wandered around the area. Naruto nodded but didn't reply. The conversation they had had was still fresh in his mind. He didn't want to talk anymore. He only wanted to see his son.

His ears picked up the sound of whispering voices and he focused on the hallway in front of him. Farther down, three figures flanked either side of a closed door to the right. Two appeared male in stature while the last was female. The woman stood timidly on the side closest to Naruto's direction, her back toward him and both hands in front of her. Beside her, one of the men—who had long brunet hair and wore white and dark traditional robes with slacks similar to her—also had his back to Naruto, but maintained a straighter posture and held his arms at his sides. Naruto regarded the two with some interest. The last time he had seen Hyuuga Neji and Hinata together they had been struggling to form a closer relationship as family. At that time, the process had been slow but progressing. Now, they seemed at home in each other's presence.

Hinata raised a hand to brush a few locks of hair behind an ear. Her face turned slightly toward the door, delicate cheek moving as she spoke. Then she looked back at the man that stood opposite her. Over Neji's shoulder, Naruto could see the other man clearly. The ninja's ebony hued eyes were fixated on the small window of the door while he casually leaned against the frame. He responded to Hinata's statement with something short which caused Neji to give a small tilt of his head before turning to the window as well. Sasuke's thin eyebrows knitted together momentarily but smoothed to a neutral position.

Now that Sasuke wasn't throwing him punches or kicks to the head Naruto could better observe his former teammate. Sasuke's features were no different from his teenage years. They were still faintly effeminate and pale, but the chiseled line of his jaw and defined muscles of his neck added a subtle masculinity that distinguished him as a grown man. Naruto wondered if things had gotten any better for him.

As he pondered this, Sasuke's eyes locked onto his and he felt a jolt run through his body. His step nearly faltered in his surprise but he managed to keep his pace. The stare didn't deter as he and Tsunade approached the three jounin. It was an intense and piercing look that made Naruto want to squirm under its scrutiny. On the surface he could detect Sasuke's anger, but below that, something else lurked. Naruto had the urge to speak, but he didn't know what to say.

Neji and Hinata turned around together (to Naruto's amusement) and greeted Tsunade. Their eyes slid to him. Naruto smiled nervously, their rapt gazes embarrassing him. At any other time, he would have been compelled to joke about the attention he was receiving but the circumstances of this reunion were not ideal. Hinata shyly returned his smile while Neji smirked. Naruto chanced a glance at Sasuke only to see that the man was ignoring him.

"Is Kanaye in there?" he asked, leaving Sasuke be and addressing Tsunade.

"Yes."

Neji stepped aside so that she could open the door. A cool breeze drifted into the hall when she did so. As she passed the threshold, Naruto heard a familiar female voice welcome her. He moved to follow but a light touch to his arm stopped him. Naruto looked to the side to see Neji loosely gripping his elbow.

"Naruto," Neji released him, "I'd like to apologize before I leave."

"For what, exactly?" Naruto asked.

"For causing you any worries about your son," the Hyuuga supplied. "It was I who had first disabled you during our pursuit. If I had been aware of the child with you I would have been more cautious. You have my sincerest apologies."

Naruto looked bemused, but then slowly nodded, grateful.

"Thanks, Neji, I appreciate that."

"Think nothing of it, Naruto. I too know how it is to worry about the well being of children."

Neji took his leave after he said what he needed. Naruto stared after him as he walked away, finding his last statement rather interesting.  _Hmm, I wonder if he meant…_  When Hinata moved to go Naruto turned to her.

"Naruto-kun," her voice was as sweet and soft as he remembered, "it's good to see you again."

Her eyes shifted away, but settled on him again. Her fingers fiddled with the cuffs of her long sleeves for a short while, and then they stilled. Hinata held him in her gaze for a quarter of a minute until the far off look in her eyes left. It was a strange expression; though, she gave him a genuine and somewhat sad smile. Naruto wasn't sure how to interpret it. Hinata placed a friendly hand on his arm.

"I hope that, regardless of the circumstances of your return, you will again be open to friendships that are still here for you," she said warmly.

She removed her hand and look over at the other jounin. Sasuke had stepped into the room a few minutes prior when the Hokage had beckoned him. He was crossing back over the threshold when Hinata spoke.

"Take care, Sasuke."

Sasuke made a noncommittal sound and watched as she strode off. He and Naruto were the only ones left by the door. The dark-haired ninja stared at him stonily, and then brushed past him.

"Don't expect as much of a warm welcome from me, dead-last," Sasuke said coldly.

Naruto frowned. It seemed as though Sasuke hadn't changed a bit. He was still as much of an arrogant asshole as he was as a kid. That was a shame. The blond had at least hoped he would have become a little happier.  _And the Uchiha legacy lives on,_  he thought sarcastically. Naruto stepped into the room.

"'Tousan!"

A mass of yellow and orange hurdled itself at him. Naruto caught the boy that leapt into his arms and happily accepted the excited hug he received. Just being able to see his son was enough to make him temporarily forget about Sasuke, his aches, and Tsunade.

— **. &.&.—**  


"So, the demon child has finally been captured."

Utatane Koharu delicately placed her tea cup upon the low table in front of her. Tsunade sighed impatiently, forcing herself not to glare at the other woman. Instead, she picked up her own tea cup and stared out the open screen door that led out to the balcony. It had been hours since the sun had set, in addition to Kakashi's assignment to watch over Naruto and his son. Now Tsunade was seated in her private quarters, meeting with her advisors and despising every minute of it.

"Need I remind you, Koharu-san, that he has a name and it is not 'demon child'," she gritted out.

Her cup was not replaced as gently as her fellow council member's and an audible  _clunk_  rang through the quiet room. To Tsunade's right, Mitokado Homura cleared his throat.

"Your sentiments are understandable, Tsunade, as Sarutobi shared them as well. However, keep in mind that it is still the village that comes first," he said. "Although the apprehension of a rogue-nin is important, this may become a strain on the village community."

"First off, do not question my priorities, Homura-san. I find it insulting," Tsunade glared at him. "As for Naruto, I don't see how his return will be a strain to the community. No one has been allowed to speak of the true nature of the Kyuubi's imprisonment for the past twenty-seven years and they won't now."

"It is primarily the ninja community we worry about," Koharu interjected; "It is possible there may be some objection from a few clans. Many of them have grown accustomed to the absence of the demon's presence. The Kyuubi is a symbol of the destruction and loss Konoha had once endured in the past. What is the use of reintroducing such an influence?"

"Yes that is true, but you also forget that from Yondaime's sacrifice hope was to be taken. Naruto was meant to be a symbol of Konoha's bravery and perseverance over those times. I don't understand why the two of you, most of all, seem to forget that. I am sure Sarutobi shared this opinion with you!"

Tsunade placed her hands on the table and laid one on top of the other. This was meant to calm her so she wouldn't be tempted to pound any dents in the furniture. Homura sighed and reached for his tea. He took a few sips as Koharu did the same. Outside a choir of crickets sung to the mid-summer night and a pleasant breeze blew over the tree tops. Tsunade wondered if her message from earlier that day had been received.

"Both of you have made very valid points," she spoke again, "but let us discuss Naruto, the man, not the demon carrier."

"Very well, Tsunade. As we all know, Uzumaki Naruto had violated Konoha law and left without permission. He should be tried as any other ninja would and sentenced as such. Has he been placed in the custody of ANBU?"

"No, Homura-san, he's been assigned to jounin, Hatake Kakashi, and is under house arrest at a local inn."

"Why is this?" Koharu asked, surprised.

"Because I didn't want to separate him from his child and there is no way in hell I'm going to allow a seven year-old civilian to be held in an ANBU prison."

Both Koharu and Homura were taken aback. They looked at one another across the table. Tsunade laced her fingers together and cradled her ceramic tea cup. She had barely touched its contents but it was still warm.

"The circumstances of Naruto apprehension are not like an average missing-nin," Tsunade continued, "He was captured as a civilian tourist traveling with his son. There were no ninja paraphernalia on his person, and besides putting up some resistance to his capture, he was relatively unarmed."

"But still, Tsunade…."

"And what would you have had me do with the boy, Koharu-san? The kid isn't a citizen of Konoha. We're not even sure if he's a citizen of Fire Country. Could you imagine being that child, stuck in a strange place and taken from your parent? It would be down right terrifying.

Anyway, from my observation of the boy, he doesn't know his father is a ninja."

Homura raised a brow.

"Is this so?"

"Yes," Tsunade answered.

The man reached up and stroked his beard thoughtfully. Koharu was contemplative as well. Tsunade glanced at each from her position between them.

"How is the boy?" Koharu asked.

Tsunade frowned at the unspoken statement that lay beneath that inquiry. She knew the real question that was being asked: Did the boy show any abnormalities from being fathered by a demon carrier?

"The boy is an average,  _normal_ , seven year-old," she said calmly. Though, she wanted to punch the wench right in her wrinkled face for asking such a question.

"Are you sure it is wise to leave him unmonitored by ANBU?" Homura added. "Regardless of any of our personal feelings, we still do not know the reasons behind Uzumaki's initial departure."

"Honestly, I doubt it has to do with any kind of defection. One thing Naruto has going for him is that he has  _always_ ," Tsunade stared pointedly at Koharu, "been an upstanding nin of Konoha prior to this offense. However, I agree, his reasons are still unknown.

As for ANBU, I believe Kakashi is more than capable. His is a former ANBU member as well as an ANBU confidant and trainer."

"You are correct, Tsunade. With all the facts before us, I don't see why an interrogation by the Council shouldn't prove sufficient for now. Do you agree, Koharu?"

Koharu inclined her head yieldingly and agreed. Tsunade smirked, nodding her agreement. She was glad that they had come to a reasonable conclusion. Her only hope was that Jiraiya would make it back to Konoha before Naruto's interrogation. Perhaps he would be able to extract more information out of him than they would. It was a gamble, but she was willing to take it.

The two council members stood gracefully for their seats on the tatami floor and lightly bowed to Tsunade. She bowed respectfully to them also, but allowed that them to see themselves out. They already knew she wasn't too fond of either of them; although she kept things civil. Tsunade was relieved that they had finally left. She could now drink something stronger than cold tea and not have to worry about anything until morning.

— **. &.o.o.&.—**  



	5. Here Where Loyalties Lie

**IV.**

**_Here Where Loyalties Lie_ **

There was a certain amount of comfort to be taken from doing a menial task. Although setting out toiletries wasn't the most satisfying of work, it did its job in keeping Sakura occupied. By arranging shampoos and soaps (more times than necessary) she could distract herself from the cycle of thoughts shifting through her mind.

Sakura placed a clean, neatly folded towel and wash rag upon the edge of the bathroom sink. Her hands absently swept at nonexistent creases as her eyes rose to witness the scene portrayed in the mirror. The glass was lightly fogged with steam from the tub's running faucet, but she could still make out the reflection of the two blonds within the next room. The eldest sat patiently on the edge of a bed while the youngest stood beside him, rummaging through their travel bag. Sakura smiled at the way Naruto gently spoke to his son as the boy prepared for his bath. The look of fatherly affection that overtook the man's features was just as new to her as the rest of his appearance.

Her smile slowly thinned and her gaze fell back down to the sink. She had always hoped that she would see her lost teammate again. It had been a fantasy of hers that if she did ever see him, she would know exactly what to say. The first thing she would have done was hug him and let him know all the things she was sorry for. She would have said sorry for never noticing how he had felt; sorry for the way she had treated him; and sorry for not being a better friend. Sakura would have told him all these things and would have meant every word.

The fantasy had been a nice one. For years it had calmed her worries of whether Naruto was still alive as well as given her a chance at redeeming herself. However, when the time had finally come and the matured visage of her friend had entered the examination room, all thoughts of a well-rehearsed reunion had left her. Sakura's heart had quivered with shock; and at the time, she had thought her legs would have collapsed from beneath her at the sudden weakness she felt. Instead of hugging him like she had always planned, Sakura had only seated herself in the nearest chair and stared.

Looking up at the mirror again, she gazed at her reflection. Her eyes shimmered suspiciously in the fluorescent light above. Sakura blinked away the unwarranted tears, laughing softly to herself. In truth, she was rather embarrassed by the way she had acted. It hadn't been the first impression she wanted to give after eleven years. She wondered what Naruto thought of her.

The female medic brushed aside a few strands of her coral-colored hair and turned toward the filled tub, shutting the faucet off. A blanket of steam rose up off the water's surface as she placed a hand in to test the temperature. It was at a decent level, enough for a child to safely take a bath without being scalded. Sakura deemed it satisfactory and stepped toward the ajar door. She pushed it fully open to stand in the threshold.

"Well, Kanaye-kun, your bath is ready now," she said, smiling affectionately.

The boy she addressed had since migrated to laying across his father's lap on his stomach, a mild look of boredom on his face. It quickly disappeared when he glanced over at Sakura after hearing her words. Kanaye grinned and propped himself up on his elbows.

"Really? Cool! Thank you, Haruno-san!" he cheered.

Kanaye scrambled to his feet, grabbing his bath things and scurrying toward the bathroom. But before he got too far, Naruto extended a long arm to catch the back of the his shirt.

"Hold up there, kiddo," the blond man said while standing up; "Before you go charging in,  _I'm_  going to be the one to pour in the bubble bath."

"'Tousaaan!" Kanaye whined.

Naruto chuckled and began ushering the boy into the bathroom as Sakura stepped aside.

"Don't ''tousan' me. We are  _not_  having another flooded bathroom incident."

Sakura stared while both father and son disappeared behind the closing door. She could still make out Kanaye's muffled protests and Naruto's low murmurs. Though the scene had been a perfectly normal one, Sakura couldn't help but find it strange. Her brain was slowly digesting the fact that Naruto was a parent, along with many other things. As far back as she could recall, she had never known Naruto to have grown up with any true parental figures. Seeing him fall easily into the role gave her a sense of awe. It was a silly thought to think, but she looked forward to learning more about her friend's new change of character. Clearing her throat, Sakura ran both hands distractedly across the loose fabric of her skirt and turned to the other occupant of the room.

"It's nice to finally see him again isn't it, Kakashi?" she said to her former teacher.

In the farthest corner of the inn room, seated on a settee stationed by the area's only window, was a lounging Hatake Kakashi. The older man glanced up from his book with a look of ignorance and a raised brow, appearing as if he was unsure of what she had said. Sakura pursed her lips impatiently at his blatant act. She knew very well that he had heard her. Even at forty-one the jounin sometimes acted as if he was a lazy teenager, incapable of any decorum of maturity. Aside from missions, Kakashi seemed to take few things seriously. It annoyed Sakura as well as endeared him to her that he could maintain such a casual persona with the lifestyle they led. But at the moment, he was walking the thin line of irritation.

Taking note of Sakura admonishing glare, Kakashi chuckled good-naturedly. He made a placating gesture while still smiling at her, and tucked the small brown book he had been reading into one of the many pockets of his flak jacket.

"Come now, Sakura, stop hefting around such an ominous cloud of anxiety," said Kakashi, his deep voice as clear as ever despite the mask he wore.

He sat up straighter in his seat and slung an arm along the back of the couch. For all the years that had gone by, Kakashi remained one of the few people who never seemed to change. He wore the same standard nin uniform as he always had; the mask he had worn since Sakura could remember was still there; and he continued to possess that lazy-eyed look he had come to be known for. If she allowed herself to think on it, Sakura supposed that he was lucky. Not many individuals had the grace to age so well. She grimaced at an errant thought: Hopefully, she wouldn't end up as one of the unlucky ones. Sakura shook her head and dismissed the idea.

"I don't see how you can blame me, Kakashi," she said, "It's been eleven  _years_. How exactly am I supposed to act?"

Sakura slowly made her way toward his side of the room, bypassing the first of the room's two beds and finally seating herself on the end of the other. She crossed her legs smoothly and frowned at him.

"I don't think I can take your stand on it, Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi tilted his head curiously, the hint of a smile outlined beneath his mask.

"Oh? And what exactly is my stand on it?" he asked.

"The same position you take on everything else, with an abnormal measure of apathy," Sakura deadpanned.

At that statement, Kakashi shrugged his shoulder—though she knew he was highly amused. He folded his arms over his chest and leaned back into the couch. Both his legs extended out and crossed at the ankle, appearing as if he was about to take a nap.

"When you get to my age, Sakura, you learn to simply take things in stride," he said.

Sakura gave him a skeptical look.  _You seem to have been doing that for the past fourteen years,_  she thought to herself.

A subtle movement sounded from the other end of the room and the kunoichi looked over her shoulder. Naruto had stepped out of the bathroom and was closing the door behind him. He regarded her briefly before making sure the door shut with a  _click_. For a moment, he stood with his arms crossed, not moving from his spot by the door. Naruto watched the both of them, her and a (supposedly) sleeping Kakashi. He seemed to study them, as if planning what to say. Sakura didn't know what to make of him.

"I thought you might have let your hair finally grow back out," Naruto said.

Sakura blinked, but then smiled.

"Long hair hardly fits me anymore, Naruto-kun," she replied.

He gave a small nod, moving his hands to his pockets. Without saying another word, Naruto walked over to the armchair situated across from Kakashi. He seated himself comfortably in to the piece of furniture and placed his arms flat against that of the chair's. Sakura noticed the minute signs of tension in his muscles and wondered if he felt as awkward as she did.

"How long should I expect to stay here?" the question was directed at Kakashi.

"Well, Naruto, Hokage-sama hasn't really informed me of the entire situation. She just told me to keep an eye on you and your boy until she issues further instructions," Kakashi spoke without altering his position or state.

"You forgot to include the part about making sure I don't make a run for it," Naruto added with a note of sarcasm.

Kakashi nodded agreeably; "That too."

The blond heaved an exasperated sigh and looked off to the side. Sakura could see how frustrated he was from the way his jaw clenched. His eyes surveyed the material of the window curtain with an amount of disinterest as he contemplated something only he knew. It worried her to know the circumstances in which Naruto was currently staying there in the inn. She had hoped that the reason would have been entirely different, but as Tsunade had explained to her, it wasn't.

"So what exactly has brought you back to Konoha, Naruto," Sakura said lowly, unsure of how to properly breach the subject.

Naruto turned to her, those clear blue eyes only focusing on her momentarily.

"I was touring Fire Country with Kanaye, and we ended up passing by Konoha in the process," he said.

There was an underlined tone in his voice that made Sakura feel as if he hadn't necessarily planned on coming to Konoha. Thinking logically, she knew that was the case. It had been years since Naruto had stepped foot in Konohagakure. If he hadn't come back during that time before, what reason would he have to come back now? Something akin to disappointment settled at the bottom of her stomach. How did everything come to this?

Sakura uncrossed her legs and folded her hands in her lap. As the seconds ticked by, the awkwardness she had felt from the examination room was growing heavier and heavier. What could she say to this man who had once been her friend and teammate? He wasn't the Naruto she had grown up with neither was he as familiar as the crass, boisterous, kind-hearted—even thoughtful—teenage boy she still had photos of in her home.

"I see," the words were only meant to fill in the space of silence that continued to grow.

Sakura's thoughts wandered to the child bathing within the bathroom. He was such a carefree little boy, as should any child be at that age. Kanaye reminded her so much of Naruto when he was younger. He appeared just as open, if not more, to accept the world as it came to him; something new and exciting that needed to be explored.

"He looks just like you, do you know that?" Sakura forced a smile onto her face. It was the only way she could distract herself from feeling even more disappointed.

Naruto switched his gaze from the curtain to the bathroom door, and then to her. He seemed to be aware of the way she was feeling and a sad expression took over his appearance. There was an apologetic manner to the smile he gave. He knew how she felt and he still cared enough to try to comfort her. It warmed the young woman's heart immeasurably.

"Yeah, I know," Naruto said in a soothing voice; "It's almost bizarre how much he does."

"Where was he born?" Sakura asked.

Naruto paused, almost as if he didn't want to answer, but she held him in an expectant stare that required him to continue.

"Here in Fire Country. His mother was from a small farming village farther out from Konoha."

She could tell he was choosing his words carefully.

"You never married?"

A muscle in the blond's right arm twitched, which wasn't lost to Sakura's trained medical eye. On closer observation, she could spot other signs of stress throughout his body. There was stiffness in his shoulders that she knew was attributing further stiffness in his neck and back. His jaw continued to clench and unclench in the slightest movements while his fingers kneaded the edges of the chair's arms. Sakura wondered what was causing such a reaction in him. Had she said something wrong?

"Actually, we did marry," Naruto said, lifting his left hand to reveal a slim silver wedding band.

A wistful look entered his eyes as he gazed at the ring. His thumb toyed with it for a few seconds before he seemed to remember she and Kakashi were still there. Naruto brought his hand back down and placed it in his lap.

"Kaiya, my wife, died when Kanaye was five," he finished.

Sakura was taken by surprise when she heard this; a feeling of guilt quickly wedged itself within her throat. There was an undeniable sense of shame for having pushed such a sensitive topic creeping along inside her chest. It was obvious why Naruto would have been anxious. Something as personal as his wife's death must have been hard for him to discuss. The pink-haired woman looked away penitently and began to fiddle with her skirt.

"I'm sorry, Naruto. I shouldn't have brought it up," she apologized.

Naruto sighed and ran a hand through his lengthy blond hair, settling his gaze on Kakashi's, allegedly, dosing form. A neutral kind of smile pulled on his lips as he raised his other hand to rest his chin on.

"Don't be, Sakura-chan, there was no way for you to have known," said Naruto.

He glanced back at her as if to emphasize his point, though this did nothing to stifle the guilt Sakura still felt. It only made her feel worse. Naruto was right, there was no way for her to have known—just like the slew of other things that he must have experienced.

All the emotions that hovered in the pregnant silence between them was overwhelming. This had not been the way Sakura wanted their reunion to transpire. Although there were many questions she wanted to ask him, and many more things she wanted to say, the atmosphere was simply too heavy for her to continue to endure. She hadn't been prepared for this; none of the anxiety and awkwardness that they both had worked to help the situation. Sakura knew it was time to leave.

She stood up, looking ahead of her as if her mind was no longer with them. With a detached precision, her hands smoothed the wrinkles from her pale yellow medic-nin uniform and adjusted the broad, deep red belt that fitted snugly around her waist. Eyes the perfect shade of green slid to watch her former teammate, a sad resolution swimming within them.

"It's getting late, Naruto," she said, "I should be going now."

Sakura uttered a goodnight to Kakashi and the man raised a bidding hand in turn. (She thought to herself, with no small measure of annoyance, that he could have at least opened his one eye.) Naruto stood from the armchair, and then stepped to stand beside her.

"Let me walk you to the door, then," said the blond.

He placed a warm hand on her shoulder that caused Sakura to hesitate. She looked up at him in askance—finally taking in how much taller he was than her. Naruto merely smiled in that same comforting way he had spoken to her minutes before. For a moment, there was a shadow of the boy she had once known in that smile. Again, it drew the same encouraging reaction from her. She nodded in compliance and returned his gesture. They both navigated around the room toward the door (pausing by the bathroom so that Naruto could check in on Kanaye).

When they made it into the hallway, Sakura allowed them to walk to the stairs in silence before beckoning Naruto to stop. She placed a hand on his arm, inwardly admiring the obvious strength and power that lay beneath his bronzed skin. It was then that reality truly hit her with the verity of how Naruto had grown just as she had. There was now a new chapter of their lives and friendship, separate from Team 7 and the Academy days, that suddenly lay ahead of them.

"You know," she gazed up into his face with a sobering countenance, "the day you left, no one had expected it."

Naruto's brows began to furrow, but Sakura didn't care. She had to get what she was going to say off her chest.

"When we went to your apartment and had found that everything was gone, it almost didn't feel real. I remember walking into the kitchen and opening one of the cupboards, expecting to see it stack with all those ridiculous packs of ramen you always used to keep," she continued; "Somehow something told me that if I had at least seen them there, then everything—the note, the empty apartment,  _everything_ —would have ended up being this big joke. Just like the pranks you used pull when we were kids.

But it wasn't."

Sakura's last statement was as firm as her grip on his arm. Her soft features were now free of the anxiety and sadness she had felt previously. They were hardened with resolve and a sense of fortitude that had been well-earned from her years as a ninja of Konoha.

"There has been only one thing I've always wanted to ask you, Naruto," said Sakura, "and that is  _why_?"

Naruto said nothing for several moments. He made no action to remove Sakura's hand from his arm, or to walk away. The blond only stood there with an unreadable look and a silent mouth. Sakura could feel her disappointment growing considerably within her. She was expecting too much from the small amount of cooperation he had given her so far. There was still that eleven year rift that existed between them, and no matter how hopeful she was, Sakura knew she could not cross it in the span of one evening. She released him.

"I don't know what exactly you want me to say, Sakura," Naruto spoke without warning.

"Only the truth, Naruto-kun."

He inhaled and breathed out slowly, staring at a remote spot above her head. The corners of his mouth crested downward while he lowered his gaze back to hers.

"The reason I left," he started, "was because I felt I had lost my connection with Konoha. I had been losing my Will of Fire."

Sakura absorbed these words quietly, trying to fully understand their meaning. They reminded of her of the harrowing letter she and Sasuke had found nailed with a kunai to the back of Naruto's old apartment door over a decade ago. She asked herself, just as she had that day, what was it that could have so callously extinguished the brilliance of Uzumaki Naruto's spirit. How could all that unwavering conviction be thwarted? Perhaps Naruto's return meant that this time she could help do something about it.

If the outcome would allow her to see the light in his eyes once again, Sakura was willing to do whatever it took. Filled with determination, she pushed aside the gloom that had engulfed her heart and the mood around them. Her posture took on a confidence she often possessed when she did her work. She smiled brightly at her friend—because she realized that this man was indeed her beloved friend, no matter what change had brought upon them. He was Uzumaki Naruto.

"Well then, Naruto, know that there are many other connections you have here that have yet to break," Sakura assured him.

The homecoming she had pictured for Naruto might not have happened as Sakura had fantasized, but deep down, she knew that fantasies were rarely meant to come true. Seeing the blond man in the right light had now given her the proper incentive to be there for him. This time around she would be the friend he really needed. Sakura moved forward and enveloped Naruto in the hug she knew she owed him. The man tensed uncertainly. He appeared to not have expected her actions. Almost timidly, he raised his arms to return her show of affection. Sakura giggled, looking up to give him an amused grin.

"Welcome home, Naruto," she tip-toed to plant a chaste kiss on his whiskered cheek.

Sakura let go of him and straightened her uniform for the second time that evening. She considered Naruto one last time before starting down the steps.

"Tell Kanaye-kun I said goodnight."

With that she left him at the top of the landing, bemused but in a more amiable mood than before. As she passed the inn's receiving area, she returned the farewell the young man sitting behind the desk sent her and left through the front door.

Sakura would head straight home tonight. It was nearing ten and she had patients to see in the morning. Possibly tomorrow night she would call on Sasuke to see how he was doing.

**—. &o.o.&.—**


	6. Doubt

**V.**

**Doubt**

When she was still alive, Kanaye's mother used to tell him stories before he went to bed. They were mostly tales about noble samurai fighting wars for powerful emperors, or ancient creatures that lived under mountains and lakes. Bedtime was his favorite time of the day because of the stories his mother told.

Out of all the stories she shared, there had been one fairytale he loved hearing over and over again. It was the story of the boy without a name.

The story started with a little boy who once lived in a village far, far away. And he was born without a name. No one knew why he had none because his mother and father would not tell. So the people of his village took pity on the boy and tried to name him themselves. But each time someone gave the child a name, it was strangely forgotten the next day. The villagers tried and tried for many months but to no avail. Then people stopped trying, and some forgot about the boy with no name.

Years went by, and the boy grew older. It was when he had grown tall and soon would be a man that he finally decided to ask his parents why he had no name. The boy's mother and father were now older and tired, and could not bring themselves to keep anymore secrets.

They told him that he did once have a name—when he was new to the world and very small. Though, on that same day, they had been visited by a kitsune disguised as a midwife. At the moment the boy's mother gave him his name, the kitsune transformed and stole it from her lips. The fox had laughed and said that it would keep the name for itself. Only if the boy could catch it would the fox return his name. Then the kitsune had run off. The mother and father had despaired at their misfortune, knowing that as a baby the boy could not catch the kitsune. After that day, they had refused to speak of what happened, until the boy had asked.

Now that he knew that he did have a name, the boy vowed to get it back. The next day he left his village to search for the kitsune that stole his name. He travelled a great distance across the land and soon ventured deep into the vast, dark forest of his country. All knew that in this forest lived strange creatures and spirits. It was here the boy hoped to find the kitsune. For months, the boy searched the forest and learned many new things from the creatures there. Then one day, while resting by a stream, the boy spotted a fox across the way drinking from the water.

Immediately he knew that this was the kitsune he searched for and drew his bow and arrow. Before the kitsune could scurry off the arrow struck its leg and felled the fox. When the boy approached the kitsune, it cried and hissed, asking why he had struck it. The boy told the fox that it had stolen his name and now it must return it. But upon hearing this, the kitsune grinned and laughed. It said that it no longer had his name and that it had given it to one of its many brothers and sisters.

The boy learned that the kitsune was a part of a very old and cunning fox that had split itself into nine to match each of its powerful tails. If the boy was to retrieve his name, he would need to catch all of the fox's aspects.

Kanaye loved hearing the great adventure the boy embarked on and how the kitsune tried to trick him at every turn. His mother repeated the story as many times as he wanted, but she had only told him the ending a handful of times. He didn't remember much about the end of the story since the last time he heard it was when he was five. But he did remember the name of the old and powerful kitsune—Kyuubi.

Sometimes Kanaye thought he saw Kyuubi, or at least one of its kitsune forms, sitting in the corner of his bedroom at night. He would also catch glimpses of it in the shadows of the neighbor's house when the sun set and the daylight was fading. It was not often that he saw this creature, but when he did, it was always from a distance. After his mother passed away, he stopped seeing it altogether.

That was two years ago.

Kanaye's dreams faded away like they usually did when he awoke. It was dark in the room he and his father had spent the night. The slightest halo of light managed to seep in from behind the thick, dark curtains that covered the windows. He breathed in deeply, exhaling away the last dregs of sleep as his eyes fluttered open.

For a moment, Kanaye wondered if he was back home in his own bed; but he made out the outline of his father's long form on the bed opposite his and remembered where he was. The figure perched on his father's bed staring back at him did confuse him, though.

It was the kitsune. Kanaye had not seen this apparition in years but recognized it right away.

The creature was a simple silhouette of a fox and had no real details to speak of. It was hazy and translucent on the inside, but had a deep red glow in its eyes and around its body. Kanaye watched the fox peering back at him. He had never seen it this close before, just a few feet away.

Kanaye dared a glance over at his father. The man's eyes were still closed, and the slow rise and fall of his chest showed he was asleep.

"What... What is it you want?" Kanaye whispered, looking back at the fox.

It didn't reply. Kanaye swallowed and propped himself up on an elbow. The fox followed his movement with its eyes. Its tail stayed curled around its feet and its ears didn't twitch from his father's soft snoring. Kanaye suddenly remembered the story of the boy with no name. He wondered if the reason why the kitsune had appeared again was because it wanted to steal his name.

"Are you going to try and take my name?" Kanaye whispered again. Still no reply. He furrowed his brows and sat up in bed.

"If you are, you can't have it," he stated firmly. No lousy kitsune was going to come and take his name. Unlike the boy from the story, he'd had his for a while.

This time the creature unfurled itself and stood on all fours. Kanaye gasped in surprise, not expecting it to move so quickly. It leaped from the edge of his father's bed onto his. All at once, Kanaye felt unsure of this encounter.

"What's the matter, Na-chan?"

His father's groggy voice filled the dimmed space of the room. Kanaye turned to the other bed to find his father sitting on the edge and watching him worriedly. The boy looked from him to where the kitsune had been. There was nothing there.

"I think I saw Kyuubi, 'tou-san," Kanaye said in an excited but hushed tone.

The worried look on his father's face slowly transformed into a more disturbed expression.

"You know, from the stories 'kaa-san used to tell me," Kanaye reminded him.

His father blinked in realization, and then chuckled softly. The action seemed more like a huff of relief than anything else. Kanaye found it curious that the older blond would act that way; but sometimes his father was just weird. He pulled back his covers and crawled over to the spot the fox had been moments ago. There were no signs of anything being there.

"I woke up and saw it sitting on your bed; and then, it jumped onto my bed right here," Kanaye pointed to the spot.

His father smiled at him and stood up, reaching over to ruffle Kanaye's hair. "Did it try to trick you into giving it your teeth," he asked, jokingly. Kanaye gave the man an unimpressed look from under his messy bangs.

"Don't be ridiculous, 'tou-san. Kitsune don't take teeth. What would they need them for? They've got plenty of their own teeth."

His father shrugged, walked over to the window, and pulled back only one of the curtains. Early morning sunlight rushed past him to fill the room, casting most of the shadows aside. Kanaye squinted against the sudden change in lighting.

Over his father's shoulder he could see the many rooftops and trees of Konoha's skyline. Konoha was so much larger than his own village. Back home there weren't half as many tall buildings and oddly-shaped houses as there were here. It was almost like being in one of the big cities his father had taken him to.

"Then if kitsune don't need your teeth, maybe you should get about brushing them. Hmm?" his father looked back at him with one of his I'm-asking-but-I'm-really-telling-you kind of looks.

Kanaye sighed and made his way out of bed.

**—. &.&.—**

Naruto watched his son crawl out of bed and shuffle toward the bathroom. Once the door closed, he pulled back the other window curtain. Sitting on the outer window sill, reading one of his trademark books, was his former team leader.

"Were you sitting out here all night?" Naruto asked, opening the window on his left.

Kakashi pulled a pencil out from one of the pockets of his flak jacket and made a mark in the small green book he was reading. He then closed the book and placed both it and the pencil in the same pocket.

"No, no," Kakashi drawled, "I have the daywatch."

Naruto stepped back from the open window to allow Kakashi in. The jounin gracefully got to his feet and strode into the room as casually as if he were entering through the door. After living in a non-shinobi village for a number of years, Naruto felt as if he now understood why Tsunade used to grumble about ninja not using doors.

"So who's got nightwatch?" Naruto asked, monitoring the bathroom door.

"Sasuke," Kakashi answered.

"Uchiha, huh? I'm sure not much arm-twisting was involved in that one."

"None at all, actually. He'd volunteered," Kakashi leaned against the window's edge with his hands in his pockets. Naruto made a noncommittal sound, then ran a hand through his hair. He was dressed in only in a pair of pajama pants and a t-shirt.

"How long am I going to be stuck here, Kakashi?" There was a measure of weariness in Naruto's voice as he spoke. He pinched the bridge of his nose as if to ward off an impending headache.

Kakashi felt a small amount of pity for his former student. He, like everyone else, had been surprised that Naruto had left the village all those years ago. It had been stranger still when a few of them tried searching for him afterwards. But every man had his own unique set of demons to fight and it seemed Naruto had been losing a battle with his. It was, however, each man's responsibility to deal with the consequences of whatever actions he took while fighting those battles. Kakashi was still coping with the guilt from his own past.

"As of now, the only decision that's been made is to keep you here under house-arrest as an alternative to an ANBU holding cell," he told Naruto. "Hokage-sama hasn't shared much else, but I suspect that you may be here a few more days or a week at most."

Naruto's head snapped back toward him. He looked indignant.

"A week! Kakashi, I can't be locked up in an inn room with my kid for a week."

Under his mask, Kakashi pursed his lips in agreement. This was a peculiar situation for Naruto to be in. He had already deduced that Naruto hadn't shared with his son that he was a ninja or that the man was facing charges of being a missing-nin. Admittedly, the entire matter was incredibly interesting.

"Hmm. So I wouldn't be wrong in assuming you've not told Kanaye-kun you're a Konoha nin."

Naruto's eyes flashed between the bathroom door and Kakashi. "Before the last twenty-four hours Kanaye had never even seen a shinobi."

"And why is that?"

"I have my reasons," Naruto said curtly.

The bathroom door clicked open. Both men watched the small blond boy wipe his face with his pajama shirt and smiled at them. Kakashi placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder and raised his brows in an amused expression.

A silent message passed between them. Naruto's face sunk into what could only be described as disparaged submission. With just a few words and a look Kakashi had managed to fill him with serious doubts about what he should do next. Naruto never expected to be back in this village and around these people. He was supposed to live out the rest of his life in relative peace and obscurity, like he had promised to.

"Then I would suggest, Naruto-kun," Kakashi said lowly, "that, to best control the progression of things, you allow your son to explore the village. He'll find out soon enough that you are a ninja, but perhaps it would be better to do so in a way that doesn't suggest his father is a criminal."

"And how do I go about doing that, Kakashi? You've told be I can't even leave this room."

The jounin patted the man's shoulder reassuringly, "I think Sakura can help. She's already on her way."

That statement alone told Naruto that he didn't have much say in what happened from then on. It was strange being on the other end of the missing-nin title, however filtered his experience was. Some reassessing was due.

Naruto nodded slowly and looked away.

—.o.—

Two days had gone by without an update of what the Hokage had in store for him. Naruto knew that Kanaye suspected something was wrong, but the boy made no mention of it. His lack of enthusiasm was hard to miss and it pained Naruto to see his son so solemn. That morning Kanaye had politely declined going out with Sakura to a children's fair in the East district. He had told the woman that he wanted to stay in with his father for a while. Naruto recalled how apologetic Sakura had looked before she said that she would try to come see them again tomorrow.

It was a few minutes after seven in the evening as he and Kanaye made their way back upstairs from eating in the inn's dinner parlor. The owner's wife had been kind enough to give Kanaye a popsicle for dessert, which he munched on contently while he followed his father to their landing. Dinner had gone without many words exchanged between them. Naruto asked about what other places Kanaye wanted to see once they left Konoha, but the little boy had shrugged and said he wasn't sure. The walk to their room had even less conversation. It was slowly killing Naruto.

When they reached their door, Naruto retrieved the room key from his vest pocket. Before he placed the key within the lock, he felt a tug on his arm. He looked over at his son in askance.

"'Tou-san..." Kanaye said hesitantly.

"What's up, Na-chan?"

The boy looked down at his feet, then at his half-eaten popsicle. He was deliberating something rather intently.

"Nothing bad is going to happen, right?"

A lump instantly formed in the back of Naruto's throat. His suspicions were validated. He turned and knelt to Kanaye's level.

"What a question to ask, Kanaye. Of course nothing bad is going to happen." Naruto rubbed the boy's arms, hoping to comfort him. "Why would you think that?"

Kanaye shrugged despondently. "I don't know. Just wanted to ask, I guess."

Naruto brushed the child's hair back and tapped his chin affectionately. He didn't know what the future held at the moment, but he would be damned if he let his son feel anything but safe.

"Hey, kiddo, don't be so glum. You're old 'tou-san is not going to let anything bad happen, okay?" He gave Kanaye the brightest smile he could. The boy gave a smaller smile before deciding to grin back at him and nodded. Naruto ruffled his hair again then stood up to open the door, all the while asking any higher power up there to give him strength.

**—. &.o.o.&.—**


	7. How It Was And Is

**VI.**

**How It Was And Is**

Sasuke observed the silhouetted figures mulling around the inn room behind drawn window curtains. He absently twirled a kunai around one finger and then flipped its handle into his hand. A glance at his watch told him that it was a quarter past seven. If Naruto stuck to his routine, the blond would have his kid in bed by seven-thirty.

For the past four days Sasuke had been taking up watch of Naruto's activities while he was under house-arrest. After he and the Hyuugas apprehended Naruto, the Godaime made the decision to place the missing-nin in one of the village's many ninja-friendly lodgings. This particular inn was not too far from the Hokage's Tower and was small enough to keep track of Naruto's movements. It wasn't too small, however, for the owners to become suspicious. As far as they were concerned, both father and son were the visiting relatives of some jounin that didn't have the space to accommodate them.

It was Sasuke's opinion that civilians were too nosy for his liking. He barely had the chance to plant his surveillance tags prior to Naruto's check-in without the inn owner's wife wanting to engage him in conversation. For the sake of his assignment, he allowed the woman to give him a full tour of the place. It gave Sasuke the opportunity to take in all the possible exits someone with Naruto's skill might think of using. At the end of the tour, the jounin had left the woman with the impression that he would keep her business in mind when recommending lodging to friends and co-workers. That was highly unlikely.

Sasuke turned his attention to the three other kunai that were pinned to the side of the wooden water tank he was perched on. Each had a tag that hung from its handle—one for each area he had placed a corresponding tag within the inn: The reception area, the dining parlor, the upstairs hallway, and Naruto's room. The tags had a simple jutsu applied to them. Whenever Naruto entered or left an area containing one of Sasuke's surveillance tags, the tag attached to the respective kunai would become active. At the moment, the tag attached to the kunai he held was the one glowing.

Normally, using this method to track specific chakra would require a more refined technique; but, Naruto's chakra signature was so large that the basics were all that was needed. In fact, Sasuke found his chakra to be too large. During their chase a few days ago, he had analyzed Naruto's chakra with his Sharingan. There was an odd blue-violet glow to the blond's chakra, and it extended a few inches off of his body. He knew that because of the Kyuubi, the other man had a robust chakra store, but Sasuke didn't remember it being like this.

What could have caused such an abnormality?

The jounin grimaced and set the thought aside. This was yet another question that Naruto needed to answer—one more thing that irked Sasuke about seeing him again. Sasuke flipped the kunai in his hand a second time before nailing it to the side of the tank with the others.

The main reason he volunteered to be a part of this twenty-four hour surveillance of Naruto was because he wanted to make his own observations. After eleven years—four of which he spent searching for Naruto—Sasuke needed to assess him at a comfortable distance. Any time spent in close proximity with Naruto would inspire an anger so fierce that he knew he would physically assault the man. It was like Itachi all over again. Here was someone else who had abruptly changed his life, and then disappeared.

Sasuke smiled bitterly at the thought of his brother.

A soft hiss came from one of the tagged kunai. He furrowed his brows and looked over at them curiously. The tag monitoring Naruto's room had stopped glowing, and none of the others lit up. Sasuke turned back to the window in time to see a figure crouched on the sill, pulling one of the panes shut. The hint of yellow hair that caught the moonlight left no doubt as to who it was. Sasuke tsked in disdain and pushed himself off of the water tank. Leave it to Naruto to upset anything that had the semblance of a schedule.

Within a few seconds Sasuke cleared the two rooftops between the inn and his surveillance spot. Just as Naruto made his way onto the tiled roof of the inn, the dark-haired nin landed three feet in front of him. The blond looked at him cautiously but did not make a move to run. Sasuke stared back at him with a cool expression.

"So I see that you were close by," Naruto stated, gauging the other. He was dressed only in a shirt and a pair of pajama pants. Compared to Sasuke's full jounin attire, he looked vulnerable.

"Are you upset about that?" Sasuke said sardonically.

Naruto's eyes lit up with irritation, and he frowned. "Actually, no, teme," he folded his arms defensively, "I was hoping you were so I could get your attention easier."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at him.

"Were you? That sounds like a really shitty escape plan,  _dobe_ ," he placed an emphasis on the insult. He didn't miss Naruto's use of his old jab. It annoyed Sasuke. They weren't kids again making friendly banter. "Regardless of where you are, you're still a prisoner and leaving your 'cell' will be interpreted negatively."

"But you're not the type of guy to act rashly before you think, Sasuke. At least, not normally. So I didn't see it being interpreted too badly."

Naruto saw the subtle twinge in his former teammate's jaw that indicated his annoyance. Sasuke never did like it when someone felt they had an advantage with him. When the jounin flipped the flap of his kunai pouch up and flicked one of the knives into his hand, Naruto wanted to roll his eyes. He held his hands up in a placating manner.

"Listen, I only wanted to talk. I don't plan on going anywhere or fighting anyone," Naruto said.

"Your lips are moving, but I haven't heard anything relevant yet, Uzumaki," Sasuke took a menacing step forward.

Naruto hesitated, unsure. He knew Sasuke could be obstinate on principle, but he didn't know how far he wanted to push his luck. The blond swallowed.

"I just want to know how much longer I'm going to be here. It's fine if you keep me holed up in this inn for weeks but at least allow me to send my son home if that's gonna be the case."

Sasuke narrowed his dark eyes and watched him suspiciously.

"And where exactly is home?" he asked.

Naruto's lips pressed into a thin line, and he remained silent for a moment. Everywhere he turned, there were persistent questions. He understood why they were being asked; he had a lot to answer for, but he just wasn't ready yet.

His eyes didn't stray from Sasuke's face as he stood there. Now that Naruto was no longer caught up in the initial rush of being brought back, he could finally  _look_  at him. Cold eyes and a dark expression. That was signature Sasuke. Always stoic.

Except for once. At the Valley of the End, when Sasuke wasn't stoic. In the rain and among the aftermath of their fight, Sasuke had just been...sad. Naruto remembered sitting on the water's edge, covered in mud and blood, shoulder to shoulder with his friend—saying nothing while the rain ran down their faces. It had been the most honest moment shared between them.

Thinking about that time made Naruto's mouth go dry. Guilt crashed into the pit of his stomach like a lead weight. He couldn't look Sasuke in the eye anymore.

"It's further south. Thirty-two kilometers northwest from Tea Country."

Sasuke's glare eased slightly. He'd only half expected his question to be answered.

Thirty-two kilometers northwest of Tea Country. That was in the southern handle of Fire Country where there lay mostly marshes and rice farmland; the backwaters of Fire.

"That's four days travel by train from Fire proper," Sasuke said, straightening his stance to a more passive one. He still kept the kunai prepped in his hand.

"It's an additional three days by foot. Two days if you manage to catch a carriage on the way to the next rail town."

The dark-haired ninja was silent, thinking on this new information. He said nothing for three breaths before replying; "That's a long way to send a kid by himself."

Taking note of Sasuke's abandoned stance, Naruto relaxed a bit. Though, he wasn't foolish enough to let his guard down.

"I don't plan to," he said, then quickly added, "All I want is to ask Tsunade to allow me to send a message to my wife's family to come get him."

Reflexively, Sasuke's eyes shifted to the silver ring on the blond's left hand. Sakura had informed him of her conversation with Naruto and him being a widower. It had never occurred to Sasuke that Naruto would get married and start a family. The idea itself was strange. In fact, Sasuke thought it was unfortunate.

He stared at Naruto contemplatively. His temperament hadn't improved since the beginning of their discussion; and it pissed him off that Naruto felt he still understood him enough to predict his reactions. The desire to strike the man was beginning its move from being a distant thought to a possible action. But he was more rational than that.

Sasuke's expression went neutral again, and he placed the kunai back into his pouch. The jounin watched the muscles in Naruto's shoulders loosen when he did so. He took some pleasure in knowing that the blond was at least on edge.

"You could have spoken to Kakashi in the morning about this rather than pull your little stunt."

"I could've, but I wanted to talk to you," Naruto said, guileless.

Sasuke was unmoved. What was it to him if Naruto wanted to talk? He hadn't been the one who left.

"Tch, you say that as if we're still friends."

Some of the anger that simmered in him made its way into his voice. His words came out harsh, more than Sasuke had intended. Naruto visibly flinched.

The blond blinked, surprised at how venomous that response was. He felt confused. Why was Sasuke so angry with him? Since the moment they had crossed paths again he had encountered nothing but aggression from him. At times it bordered on contempt. Sakura said that Sasuke had been the one to find his note so many years ago—that he had been the first to read it. Didn't he understand? Naruto had left because he loved them.

He suddenly felt angry.

"What are you getting at, Uchiha?" Naruto demanded. "Being pissed about me tryin' to run I can understand, but to think I'm not your friend? I've always been your friend and I have always cared about you. Always!"

In his anger, he had cleared the distance between them, but did not notice until he felt Sasuke's forearm shoved against his throat, with a kunai held centimeters from his face. The ninja glared at him with a deadly look in his eye.

"Watch yourself. It won't be the first time I've had to subdue a prisoner," Sasuke's voice was hushed but filled with ill-intent. It immediately sobered Naruto, making him step back in concession.

Sasuke's patience was now at its limit.

"You'll see the Godaime before your interrogation tomorrow. You can plead your case then," he said.

This shocked Naruto. "Interrogation? Tomorrow? Why wasn't I told about this before?"

Sasuke regarded him impatiently. "Maybe you should have tried to speak to Kakashi instead of me."

With those words, their conversation was over. If Naruto attempted any further words with the jounin, he knew that it would come to blows and that wasn't ideal for his current situation. One thing he could definitively say about Sasuke in their development into adults is that the man had mastered the art of being a dick. Naruto shook his head in disgust and began to backtrack to the edge of the inn roof. He kept his eyes on Sasuke, wondering to himself about how things had come to this. Had he not made the right decision eleven years ago? His best friend seemed to be filled with more anger now than when they had first met back at the Academy. In the back of his mind, Naruto questioned if part of it was his fault.

When the back of his foot touched the edge of the roof tile, he stopped. He glanced down to make sure he was over the right window. Naruto hoped Kanaye had remained asleep while he was up here. The last thing he needed was a curious seven year-old who wouldn't go back to bed. After one last look at Sasuke, he jumped back off the roof, landing in a crouch on the wide lip of his room window's outer sill.

He huffed out a frustrated breath.

If he was honest with himself, a rush went through him each time he fell back into his old shinobi habits. There was no dashing through tree branches and leaping off of roofs in the quiet farming village he'd settled in. At times he had found himself unknowingly using chakra to keep his feet above water in the rice paddy fields. It was this type of feeling that kept him torn between trying to leave and wanting to stay.

All these thoughts were shoved aside when he realized one of the window panes was already open. Alert, he pushed the curtain to the side. The room looked exactly the way he had left; Kanaye sleeping soundly in one bed and empty sheets on the other. Naruto eyed the interior dubiously.

He hopped in off of the outer sill onto to the wooden floor, then pivoted his hip to the left to grab the figure standing in the shadows on the other side of the window. A hand reached up to parry his attack but Naruto was ready with his right fist to punch the intruder in the jaw. When it connected, instead of the person falling to the floor, there was a small pop and a puff of smoke.

A shadow clone?

"You can never be too careful, Naruto." Sasuke's voice drifted in to the room.

Naruto stuck his head back out the window and looked up. The jounin was looking down at him from the edge of the roof, an amused smirk on his face. Naruto thought he appeared every bit like the cocky asshole he was prone to be. He glared at him.

"Teme!"

Sasuke was unfazed by his curse. "Try to stay inside this time. I'm not in the mood to talk anymore."

He was gone in a wisp of smoke.

Naruto scowled and gripped the edge of the window, irate. How could he forget how spiteful Sasuke could be? Sometimes people just never changed, or refused to.

He gritted his teeth. After several minutes his irritation deflated and he felt very, very tired. Tomorrow they were going to interrogate him. What else did they have in mind after that?

Naruto knew he had to get his son back home soon before anything serious happened. So much for their father-son bonding trip around Fire Country.

**—. &.o.o.&.—**


	8. When The Time Comes

**VII.**

**When The Time Comes**

His pounding feet and thundering pulse had mixed into one dissonant sound, filling his ears as he raced through the tunnel. He was fueled by fear, adrenaline, and a palpable amount of panic. This was the worst case scenario he'd dreaded—the one that the fox had taunted him endlessly about. Even now, its rumbling howls of laughter were chasing after him as he forced his legs to move faster.

Naruto careened around a dark corner, stumbling over his feet but not daring to slow down. What could have triggered his black out? He only remembered walking home from hanging out with the guys. That was harmless enough, wasn't it? But here he was, tearing down this passage, praying it wasn't too late. He thought he had had this under control.

The tunnel drew back and the teenager found himself in an alley. His progress was suddenly stopped when an unseen force pushed back against him. It took him by surprise, but for the briefest moment. He pressed forward, determined to make it through. As he moved the force stretched around him, then flung him back and solidified into a wall. Naruto shoved at the barrier, running his hands over its surface, frantically searching for any type of give. His heart sank when he realized he couldn't go further. All he could do was watch the three figures cloaked in shadow on the other side of the alleyway.

One of them lay immobile on the ground while another was pinned to the wall, around his throat, by the third. The second man was pleading to be let go. He kept saying that he was sorry for what he'd said and that he hadn't meant it. His desperate whimpers sent an icy chill down Naruto's spine. Every fiber in his being was screaming at him to stop what was happening.

_No._

"Stop!" Naruto banged his fist against the invisible wall, hysteria creeping into his voice. He couldn't stand here and watch this. The very thought of what could happen terrified him; but he still couldn't regain control.

He slammed his shoulder violently into the barrier, pushing and clawing at it for all he was worth. There was no way he would let this go on. This wasn't him. Hot tears began to pour down his face and he rammed his body into the wall again.

"Do you hear me, asshole? Stop it!"

There was a faint  _snap_  and the struggling man's pleas abruptly stopped. His form went limp, all signs of life completely erased. Naruto froze in horror as the man's body was flung callously toward him.

_No._

"You're a selfish prick, you know that?" the third figure reprimanded. He stepped out of the shadows to fix an accusing glare on the teen. Naruto found himself staring back at a pair of deep blue eyes, half hidden by a mass of messy blond bangs.

"They deserve all the suffering I'm gonna bring 'em. So don't you pretend that you don't feel the same way."

These words hit him like a punch in the gut and plunged deep down to his very core. His knees trembled and buckled; and he found himself collapsing to the trash ridden ground, beside two prone bodies. He stared at them both, horror-struck. There was no one else in the alley. His fingers still tingled from having snapped both their necks.

_No._

Breathing soon became harder to do, and his vision dimmed around the edges, until all he could see were the two dead men. He clawed at his hair, shaking his head frantically. Why was this happening?

_Because I want it to._

"NO!"

—.o.—

A scream bubbled up from his throat and jarred him awake. Instinctively, one hand sprang up to his chest, clutching the area over his heart. Its fevered rhythm was so intense that he feared it would burst right out of his ribcage. Naruto gripped the front of his shirt tighter, struggling to breathe normally. He took a deep breath and held it for a few seconds until his heart rate slowed. After the shock passed, he realized that the cold sweat drenching his skin was quickly drying in crisp outdoor air. Confused, his eyes finally focused on the overcast sky above him and then on the rest of his surroundings.

Naruto shifted onto his side. He was at the edge of a wood, on an outcropping of rock that overlooked a gorge. It was desolate. There were no buildings or animals, not even the chirping of crickets or the rattling of cicadas. The only sounds around came from his slowed breath and the rambling of moving water from somewhere far below in the gorge.

He had no idea where he was.

"Nonsense, you know exactly where you are," a voice said from behind him.

His eyes shot over in its direction to catch a glimpse of a long white cloak approaching him. When his gaze traveled up it settled on a tall male figure with a familiar pair of vermillion-colored eyes.

"Kurama," Naruto blurted out without thinking. The name jumped out at him as if it was the most obvious thing to say. In fact, he didn't know why he hadn't remembered it before.

The man-like creature stopped its advance and looked at the teenager curiously. It scrutinized him with an unblinking stare that felt uncomfortably invasive. Naruto began to feel awkward about what he'd said and averted his eyes sheepishly.

"That's your name…" he stated, feeling the need to defend himself.

Kurama raised its brows and gave a sharp laugh. "Are you informing  _me_  of that helpful tidbit?" it asked with no lack of sarcasm.

Naruto flushed, embarrassed. "Don't be a smart-ass, teme. I was only saying it, okay? Besides, I just remembered it."

Kurama chuckled in its deep reverberating voice and grinned slyly. It continued its progress over to the blond, staring down at him, amused. The humanoid body it manifested in was still unnatural to look at with its blazing red hair and sharpened canines. When it grinned the way it did, the expression came off as more feral than jovial.

"You mortals and your strange psyches," Kurama said. "You remember certain things and not others."

It glanced over its shoulder toward the line of trees behind them. There was an unusual darkness threaded between the tree trunks. No light filtering through the branches could penetrate it, and its presence seemed to emphasize the eerie silence around them. Kurama shook its head dismissively before looking back down at Naruto.

"And then there are the things you try so desperately to forget but can't. No matter how hard you try."

This last sentence was punctuated with a pointed leer that baffled him. Naruto eyed Kurama suspiciously before pushing himself up onto his feet. Unwittingly, his gaze wandered over to the wood and the mysterious darkness caged by the trees. It filled him with an uncanny amount of foreboding that made him tremble slightly. He was curious to know what was in it but was also unwilling to find out.

Kurama stepped into his line of sight, stealing his attention away from the trees.

"We need to speak," it said.

"About what?" he asked, eager to move on to something else.

The fox scowled, crossing its arms. "About the idiocy you're currently employing. What are you still doing in Konoha?"

Naruto bristled at the harsh tone and sudden insult thrown at him.

"What the hell are you going on about? I  _live_  in Konoha, asshole. Why else would I be there?"

Kurama sneered in annoyance then rolled its eyes impatiently. Its behavior was strange.

The Kyuubi was never the most congenial creature but this random aspersion was quite abrupt. Leery, he watched as it stalked off a few feet to his left. Naruto's suspicion grew even more when it whirled back around to give him an impetuous glare.

"This would have been much easier if you hadn't kicked me out of your surface thoughts days ago," Kurama growled, "Then I wouldn't have to drudge around through your dreams and deal with this ridiculously wistful shadow of you."

"I don't get what—"

"You are  _dreaming_ , you fool. You don't live in Konoha anymore and you haven't done so in over a decade. Now, I need the rest of your consciousness here so we can speak properly."

They both fell silent. A growing tension overpowered the space between them; it pushed down on Naruto with each second that passed. He stood grimacing at Kurama; his face twisting and converging through an array of expressions, unsure of how he wanted to feel. In the end, it was sullenness that won and what caused him to look defiantly down at his feet.

Damn the fox to whatever hell it spawned from!

But it was right; he was being too nostalgic. He didn't live in Konoha anymore, and he was making a bad habit of forgetting that.

A hand touched his shoulder. When Naruto looked up, he found himself staring at an older reflection of his own face. The man standing beside him smiled apologetically and gave him a gentle squeeze. Resignation ploughed through him with that gesture, its meaning not lost on him. Slumping his shoulders dejectedly, he focused on the steady weight that remained there and allowed his body to fray into nonexistence.

"It's about time you showed up," Kurama growled. It paced back over to Naruto after the apparition of his teenage self disappeared.

The blond had yet to turn away from the spot where his other self had been. A line of worry was etched across his brow and the corners of his mouth were drawn tight. It perturbed him the way his subconscious fixated on how things were when he was seventeen. He had spent the better part of the last decade trying to move past that point in his life; and yet, when he slept, he found himself trapped in a strange time loop of half remembered memories that he wasn't sure were real.

In truth, he couldn't remember much of anything from when he was seventeen. And that was where most of his anxiety about being back in Konoha originated. How could he think to answer all these questions of  _why_  he left when he could barely remember the months leading up to it, or even the year after? All he had to go by were horrible, surreal dreams that made him shy away from trying to find anything out.

"Enough with the self-pity."

Kurama's voice shook Naruto from his thoughts, earning it a displeased glance in its direction.

"Now that I have your full attention: What are you still doing in that godsforsaken inn?" it commanded, getting straight to the point.

Naruto sighed irritably and opted to ignore its inquiry so he could look back over the gorge. Kurama had said that he knew exactly where this place was, and he did. It was one of the few locations he could clearly recall from the unusual gap in his memory. No matter what he dreamt about, he always ended up here, at the edge of a mysterious wood overlooking a vast chasm. Curious still was the fact that Kurama was the only thing he ever saw here. The fox never acknowledged this bizarre coincidence but it didn't hide the fact that it knew something he didn't.

"If you haven't noticed, I'm being held there under house-arrest," Naruto finally decided to answer.

Kurama scoffed at his remark, "Don't be annoying, brat. House-arrest is for weaker individuals than yourself. You're there because you want to be."

That wrangled Naruto's attention completely. "Because I want to be?" he gawked at the fox indignantly. "Why exactly would I want to be locked up for days under surveillance with my son, no less?"

"Because of guilt."

A clawed finger jabbed him unsympathetically in the chest. The blond swatted it away angrily, scowling at the Kyuubi. Before he could return a nasty retort, it cut him off.

"It's always been about your guilt, boy. It's the reason why you pretend to be a farmer and tell yourself that you're no longer a shinobi. It's also the reason why you let that Uchiha drag you back," Kurama's words were abrasive.

"You can leave at any time you like. You already have access to some of my power, and if you asked, I would give you more—enough to level this damn building with the snap of your finger. So don't tell me you're 'under house-arrest'."

Its red eyes glowed with a tenuously restrained power. Naruto's skin flushed with the intense heat that began to radiate off of its humanoid form. There was no attempt by the fox to try to contain it; and behind them, the screen of darkness trapped within the wood began to quiver. Its collective mass slowly swelled outward, straining its way up through the branches and causing the tree trunks to bow and creak under its pressure. He watched the scene with a mounting dread that had his heated skin breaking out into a cold sweat.

The darkness worried him more than Kurama's blatant show of dominance. Staring into it like this made him feel as if something inside him was about to break.

"STOP IT!" he shouted. His words echoed out around them, amplified by the emptiness that saturated the atmosphere. Everything ceased with his command; Kurama's flexing, the pulsing blackness within the tree. He breathed heavily through his nose, barely able to contain his escalated anxiety. Fists balled tightly at his side, he stared the Kyuubi down with a wild look in his eyes.

"What do you want from me? What do you expect me to do?" Naruto demanded, "I'll admit it, I'm scared. And perhaps you're right, I am a fucking coward. But burning this entire place to the ground is not going to help me or my son."

Kurama regarded him with a detached expression. It cocked its head to the side and folded its arms. It replied: "I'd advise against asking me what I want, but what I expect is for you to stop running away, Naruto. How long do you intend to go on like this, a broken man without conviction?"

The blond flinched at the accusation, his grimace deepening. "That's not true—"

"Quiet!" the fox admonished. "It is, true. And that boy, Kanaye, does not deserve to call a man like that father. It's simply unforgivable."

The mention of his son arrested Naruto, stealing away his advantage of anger. Kanaye was one of the few topics that could throw him into a state of insecurity, and being labeled as an inadequate father was the worst. There was also the memory of Sasuke's recriminating glare and disavowing of their friendship. Naruto felt himself wilting from the shame it filled him with.

"Whether you stay in this village or not doesn't matter. Your past was bound to catch up with you no matter what. But for God's sake, don't continue to wallow in that resignation you hide behind. It sickens me," Kurama spat these last words out as if they were a foul-tasting meal.

His shoulders slumped further under the fox's criticism. Was he really that pathetic? All he had wanted to do was make up for the transgression he figured he had done and even the ones he couldn't remember clearly. He'd promised Kaiya that he would start over, leave his past behind. But had he lost his integrity in the process?

The ramblings of the water below morphed into the sound of rainfall for an instant. In that moment, Naruto thought he felt it on his skin; and when he looked down at his hands, he caught sight of a rain-sodden boy sitting in front of him. The child looked no older than twelve with a mess of blond hair and an ostentatiously orange jumpsuit flaunting a simple red spiral. His back was turned to Naruto but all his attention focused on the other drenched child sitting beside him. It was the most honest moment he had ever shared with anyone.

Where had that boy gone?

Naruto allowed the vision to fade back into his dreamscape and glanced up at the Kyuubi.

"I'm sorry, Kurama. I guess I'm just trying to figure out who I am, really," his voice was soft, humbled.

The fox frowned, seemingly bemused with what to do with this apology. Pressing its lips into a thin line, Kurama tsked, irked.

"You are so annoying."

This declaration hung in the air for a few moments before an amused chuckle wormed its way past Naruto's lips. His heart felt lighter with each joyful exhale and tears began to stream down his cheeks from the building emotion.

"That's me, dattebayo. That's me," he half sobbed, wiping the tears from his face.

Kurama rolled its eyes a second time then leveled him with an unimpressed stare.

"As long as you understand that, brat."

It crossed the few feet between them to place a hand over Naruto's heart. The action startled him into silence with how human the gesture was. He stared at Kurama, fascinated.

"It will help you move past your fear," it said cryptically.

Not moving its hand, the fox also added; "Now stop pretending. You are a ninja, so handle your business like one."

The powerful shove he received after Kurama spoke launched Naruto backwards a foot off the ground. He swore as he was sent plummeting over the ledge down into the gorge, a spike a panic hitting him when he realized he couldn't move. A booming drumbeat flooded his ears, reminding him of a beating heart.

That's when he noticed them; tiny drops of blood that flew away from him as he fell. His eyes followed their trail down to the hilt of a tanto knife embedded in his chest, precisely where Kurama's hand had been.

An overwhelming sense of déjà vu washed over him when he hit the water and everything faded to black.

—.o.—

There was no slow transition from being asleep to waking up. Naruto was simply awake, eyes open and body lacking in the lethargy that came from a deep sleep. The feeling was accompanied by a strange sense of calm that he didn't expect, considering the last vision of his dream was of him dying. He didn't know what Kurama had done but it seemed the fox was coming to know (if not already knew) his mind better than he did. It always seemed privy to the right thing to do to jumpstart some of his memory. He was convinced that it knew something about why he couldn't remember almost a year of his life.

Through all his contemplating, Naruto noticed that the ceiling he was staring at wasn't the soft cream color of his inn room. Also, the cot he was laying on was a far cry from the bed he had fallen asleep in. He sat up and looked around, surprised to find his son nowhere in sight but that he wasn't alone.

"Why am I here and what happened to Kanaye?" he asked the silver-haired ninja standing by the foot of his cot.

Kakashi raised both brows in greeting and moved his elbows casually, hands remaining in his pockets. "Ah, Naruto, glad to see that you're awake!" he said, pleasantly. Behind the older jounin, by the only door, was a watchful Sasuke. His arms were crossed, and he planted Naruto with a fairly aggressive glare. The blond shot him an equally challenging look. There was no way he was going to allow himself to be discouraged by Sasuke any longer.

"We had a slight change of plans this morning, but Kanaye-kun is safe and sound back at the inn. Sakura is with him as we speak," Kakashi continued.

Naruto frowned at his oblique answer.

"Exactly what do you mean by change of plans, Kakashi? I thought I was being held there until the Godaime saw me before my interrogation."

"He means you blew out all my surveillance tags on the upper floor of the inn. So you were moved at my discretion," Sasuke interjected. He hadn't taken his eyes off of the other man. "The chakra burst nearly knocked the walls of your room out."

A spark of annoyance lit up inside Naruto. Sometimes that damn Kurama was more troublesome than it was worth. For all the chastising he'd received for acting idiotic, that creature did some superbly stupid things. Hadn't the thought crossed its mind that it might have collapsed the building on top of both him and Kanaye while they slept? Not to mention the variety of other people also staying there. This was his fault for not paying enough attention to the full extent of their new internal setup. He hadn't needed to while in their quiet farming village; the fox never brandished power the way it did tonight.

_Handle my business like a ninja. Just you watch me._

"Sasuke's right," Naruto heard Kakashi say, "So now you're currently in the lower levels of the Hokage Tower."

His former teacher analyzed him closely. "I'll have to admit, Naruto. I wasn't expecting that kind of behavior from you. You've seemed pretty level headed, if not guarded, since you've been back. That was a reckless move."

Kakashi watch the blond sigh and swing his legs over the side of the cot.

"What time is it?"

He and Sasuke exchanged glances at this redirect. It was obvious that there was much more going on than Naruto let on.

Under his mask, Kakashi frowned. Preferably, he liked keep things light-hearted, as he found it threw many of his opponents off and encouraged people to talk when they were reluctant to do so otherwise. However, there were times when he had to change tactics and use intimidation to get what he wanted. But this wasn't the place for that, and it wasn't his responsibility at the moment. He hoped that Naruto would come to reveal what he hiding on his own. From what he had observed, over the past week, Kakashi knew the man was tittering on the edge of something. It was only a matter of time before he finally burst at the seams.

He felt sorry for Naruto.

Kakashi sighed. "It's about time for you to see Hokage-sama," he indulged.

A gloved hand emerged from his pocket to point toward a pile of clothes sitting on a bench by the door.

"Change, then Sasuke and I will escort you up."

**—. &.&.—**

Tsunade took a long swig of the lukewarm coffee that had been sitting idly on her desk. The stuff tasted horrible, courtesy of her assistant, but it served its purpose. She needed something to take the edge off of the fatigue she was experiencing and also preempt the headache she expected by the end of the hour. When she placed the cup back down, a pair of large hands planted themselves on each of her shoulders.

"Come on, Tsunade. You can't fall apart so early in the game. You're too tense," the man behind her said while kneading her shoulders.

A nerve above her eye twitched with her increased annoyance.

"Fuck you, Jiraiya. You're not the one who's had Utatane and Mitokado up their ass for the past week about when this interrogation would happen," she shrugged his hands off and began massaging her own stiff muscles. "It was hard enough convincing them that there was no need to use someone from Ibiki's team or establish a formal inquiry. They think I'm being sentimental about this whole thing and might push to have a second interrogation if they think it's warranted. Why the hell did it take you so long to come?"

Jiraiya held his hands up appeasably, letting Tsunade dress him down. He knew she only did it because she was stressed and probably overworked. The pitfalls of a job he was unwilling to accept.

"Now, now, Tsunade. Take it easy on an old man, I'm not as spritely as I was forty years ago," he joked. The Sannin leaned back against the solid oak desk and smiled down at his old teammate. "When I got your message I was doing some investigating in Waterfall country. I rushed back as fast as I could."

Tsunade glared at him from the corner of her eye, but huffed in assent. She stopped her self massage and sat there expectantly. Jiraiya smirked, placing his hands back on her shoulders to finish the job. He considered this to be the best skill in his repertoire; relaxing a woman to better prepare her for the task at hand.

As he pressed both his thumbs along the line of muscle at the base of the kunoichi's neck, he asked: "So, do I get a quick titty grab before this all starts?"

"No, you perverted old fool!" Tsunade said in quick response. Her hand gripped a nearby pair of scissors to emphasize her point.

"You're so stingy, woman."

Their repartee soon fell to the wayside when their attention came back to the file sitting in the middle of Tsunade's desk. Jiraiya's expression turned serious as he reached down to pick it up. He flipped it open with on hand, keeping the other firmly on the Godaime's shoulder.

"How is he?"

A part of him was startled by the picture clipped to the upper left corner of the first page in the folder. It was like seeing an exact replica of Minato with the same long, spiky blond hair and deep blue eyes. The only problem was the look on the man's face; it was unsure and closed off. In the biographical information of the report it stated that Naruto was currently twenty-seven years-old.

"Frustrating. He's frustrating, which is no big surprise. But he's been very tight-lipped about what he's been up to during his absence," Tsunade answered. She placed her chin in her palm. "Like I mentioned in my message, we happened to catch him here while he tried to escape the village again. It's almost unbelievable, ten years of searching and all it took was him strolling back in unannounced."

Jiraiya moved to the other side of her desk and sat down in one of the chairs in front of it. He flipped through a few more pages before stopping on another picture.

"And he has a kid."

"It would seem so. Uzumaki Kanaye: Age seven, only child of Naruto and his deceased wife Uzumaki Kaiya. The woman was the daughter of a rice farmer named Yoshida Hotaka and his wife Ayako. Naruto and the boy live with them in their farming village."

"That doesn't narrow down where he's been by too much. Fire's riddled with farming villages, some of them rather remote. That's if the place is even in Fire Country," the frog hermit, pointed out. Tsunade grimaced and gestured to the file.

"I don't need reminding of that. Most of this report is piecemealed information from what Sakura's been able to wheedle out of Naruto's son and what Sai has gathered on his investigation while you headed here. It's not much but we at least have a framework to go off of," she said. "He's not the same kid you remember, Jiraiya. He's broody and secretive, and he doesn't even consider himself a ninja anymore."

Tsunade watched her comrade raise a questioning eyebrow that statement. Jiraiya finished skimming through the report and handed it back to her. She took it from him, peering intently at his features as she did so. He looked thoughtful as he rubbed his chin absently. She could guess at what he was thinking about. From the moment Naruto's disappearance was discovered Jiraiya had been looking for him, faithfully, for the past eleven years. His devotion to finding him could only be compared to that of a father's devotion to his son. Tsunade was glad he made it back.

When he returned her gaze the man smiled that cheeky little smile he was prone to.

"Don't worry, old woman," Jiraiya reached for her free hand and held it between both of his. It was still young and delicate looking compared to his large, rough ones. "I'll set the kid straight."

She smiled back at him, letting go of the folder and placing her other hand of top of his. "I know you will. That's why I wanted you to talk to him instead of the Council."

Jiraiya nodded resolutely.

There as was a firm knock on one of the office doors before a slight woman dressed in a chuunin uniform stepped in. "Hokage-sama, Hatake-san and Uchicha-san say that Uzumaki is ready for your appointment," she informed Tsunade.

The Godaime thanked her assistant and dismissed her. She took her hands back from Jiraiya.

"It seems I'm up," he said, standing up from his seat. Tsunade smirked as she pushed the discarded report further to the side.

"You know he's expecting to see me first."

Jiraiya placed his hands confidently on his hips; "That makes it all the more perfect." He strode out the office without another word.

**—. &.o.o.&. —**


	9. The Truth Could Set Us Free

**VIII.**

**The Truth Could Set Us Free**

It had been twenty minutes since they'd escorted him to this room. The walk up from the holding cells had gone by quietly, with neither Sasuke nor Kakashi encouraging any continued conversation. Truthfully, Naruto hadn't mind. In spite of the cautious welcome most of his old friends had offered the reality was that he was a deserter. Not even his former team leader could feign blissful ignorance to that. Now here he was: seated on the other side of a desk that he himself had once led enemies and defectors of Konoha to. If the curdling of anxiety hadn't begun to spread through his insides, Naruto might have laughed at the irony.

He glanced over to the only window in the room. It was a modest rectangular shape in the wall with a single glass pane. He wondered if there were any stun tags planted beneath it on the other side to prevent escape. Naruto was fairly certain there were. The interrogation rooms in the Hokage Tower were meant to be simple and unassuming. However, they were riddled with various traps and cantrips to keep wanted parties in. It was a clever setup.

The mischievous side of him pondered on how many of them he could trigger before anyone finally came. Being kept waiting and away from his son was slowly grating at his nerves.

Another ten minutes went by before he heard the door open behind him. The blond straightened in his chair and turned to see who was entering. He heart skipped a beat when he spotted the porcupine's nest of long white hair accompanied by the bemused smile of Jiraiya.

It had been years since Naruto had seen those features, and suddenly his heart ached with a deep sense of shame.

"You're not the Hokage," he said, not daring to say anything else.

"Ha! No, kid, you and I both know I dodged that kunai a long time ago," Jiraiya entered the room fully, shutting the door behind him.

The old ninja watched Naruto carefully for a moment, and Naruto knew he was taking in his new appearance. This had become a common reaction among the others. It had been eleven years after all. He was different. They were different.

"You got taller," Jiraiya said.

"And you not so much anymore." Naruto couldn't help the fondness that snuck into his voice. He even smiled when Jiraiya laughed at his small jab.

For an instant, the fact that he was a deserter about to be interrogated didn't matter. He was seeing his old mentor for the first time in over a decade. The opportunity made him realize how much he'd missed Jiraiya. Out of everyone he should have been able to go to the sannin for help. But would he have understood?

Thinking on his dream from this morning and about how much he was still piecing together from back then, Naruto wasn't sure. What had happened to him, the way that he'd been changing, he didn't think Jiraiya could have understood that. None of them would have.

He had been right to leave, but as a result he'd disappointed everyone. Naruto had disappointed Jiraiya. This thought suddenly overwhelmed Naruto, and he couldn't bear to look at the other ninja anymore.

Without a word, he turned back around in his seat and returned to looking out the window.

Jiraiya didn't comment. He slowly made his way to the chair opposite Naruto and sat down.

More silent seconds went by.

"What does the Hokage plan to do with me?" the blond decided to speak up since Jiraiya clearly wasn't.

Jiraiya inhaled deeply, folding his arms and reclining in his seat.

"Well, that honestly depends."

"On what?" Naruto turned his gaze to the old man.

"On what you tell me. On what we find out," Jiraiya replied. "Hell, your fate could already be decided and I could just be here to fill in the time."

Naruto rolled his eyes at this glib statement. Was Jiraiya trying to work him up so he would feel cornered? Though he'd never done an interrogation himself, he remembered how they were conducted. They wouldn't have him here if they'd already decided his fate.

"Jiraiya, please. It's been a long time, but I'm pretty sure Tsunade couldn't take a shit without you finding out about it," he spoke frankly.

The other man openly grinned at his crass declaration.

"So Uzumaki Naruto finally makes an appearance, eh?"

Naruto stared at him, confused.

"Since I walked in here you've been all business. Aside from that punk statement about my height, I wasn't sure who I was talking to," Jiraiya clarified.

An uneasy expression settled over Naruto's face. The idea of not being seen as himself perturbed him. It was most likely a careless comment on the old man's part, but how could he determine what Naruto should be like? Jiraiya hadn't seen him in years. All he or anyone else remembered was a lost boy.

"How valid do you think that remark is, Jiraiya? You haven't seen me in eleven years. I could be nothing like my teenage self," he said defensively.

Jiraiya leaned forward with a deliberate motion and placed folded hands on top of the table. His face was grim, smile gone.

"You're right. I can't properly vouch for what type of behavior you should have," the old ninja said. "The kid I knew would never have abandoned his village or his family. So, it's up to you to inform me of the type of man Uzumaki Naruto is, and why we should allow you to leave this building."

The terse delivery of Jiraiya's words stripped Naruto of his previous defense. He didn't know if he might have hurt his case by trying to disabuse the other man of who he thought he was. All he could do was nod in response.

Jiraiya accepted this with a grunt. "Let's start with the basics then."

"Have you defected to another hidden village or nation outside of Konohagakure or Fire Country?"

"No."

"Are you here as a spy for any secret organizations or enemies of Konoha."

"No."

"Is the boy you claim to be your son involved with any such organizations?"

"Absolutely not. Kanaye doesn't even know I used to be a shinobi."

A curious quirk of his eyebrow was Jiraiya's only response to this revelation.

"All right. Why did you leave?"

The question was simple but dangerously loaded. Naruto contemplated on how he should answer. With the truth? Perhaps Jiraiya could understand. He had been a rock at a time in Naruto's childhood when he most needed it. Jiraiya had been a father to him.

A dull ache began to form behind the blond's eye. It crept further along to his temple, spreading toward the back of his skull. The feeling associated with this migraine felt like Kurama. It was aggressively calling for his attention. Naruto still hadn't allowed it back into his conscious mind.

His headache grew worse.

_What?_  His thoughts turned inward, pulling Kurama presence toward him.

_'I'd advise you to think carefully on how you choose to answer that question,'_  the fox's deep, reverberating voice filled Naruto's mind.

_I already know that._

_'And yet you entertain the thought of telling the truth.'_

Naruto hesitated at its words. A part of him desperately wanted to let the truth out. The only other person who knew anything about the things he'd done had been his wife; and she was gone now.

_'You made a request of me,'_  Kurama barked angrily,  _'and I have upheld my end of the deal. But if you place our boy in danger because of your stupidity, I will wrest control from you and burn this place to the ground. Then_ you _will be left to deal with the aftermath this time.'_

Its metaphysical form paced, agitated, through the mental tunnels of Naruto's psyche. He could sense that Kurama was serious about its threat. The image of the tree line atop the cliff came back to him, with its impenetrable darkness and the terror it filled him with. No, he couldn't face that yet.

"I didn't feel I was fit to serve Konoha anymore," Naruto turned his attention back to Jiraiya and the room. He decided that the best way to lie was with half-truths. Only a second had passed by since he'd been engrossed in his internal debate.

"What made you feel like you were unfit?" Jiraiya asked.

"I'd lost my conviction. I…I'd begun to doubt my way of the shinobi," Naruto continued. "I felt as if I didn't know what the principles of the Leaf meant anymore. I'd lost my Heart of Fire."

For the first time since they had started, a look of sympathy penetrated Jiraiya's features. It was slight, but Naruto could see the empathy his words evoked. He suddenly recalled the reasons why Jiraiya had chosen to travel outside of Konoha. The man had had his own demons he couldn't face.

"But why desert the village? Why didn't you come to me or Tsunade? Why not have gone to Sasuke? He of all people could have empathized if that was how you felt."

At the mention of Sasuke's name, Naruto's resolve faltered. He thought of the cliff again and the trees. The panic was creeping back.

He didn't know why he hadn't spoken to Sasuke. Trying to remember meant facing that terrible wood.

"I was sixteen. Trained ninja or not, how many teenagers do you know that think past their own problems?"

Jiraiya gave a wry smile.

When Naruto glanced back toward the window the sun was much higher than when he first came in to the room. He estimated that he'd been here for at least an hour.

"I want to talk to you about Akatsuki."

Naruto hoped he didn't give himself away with how fast his head turned to look at Jiraiya.

"About a month after we discovered you were gone, I went looking for you," Jiraiya leaned back into his seat.

"It took nearly a year, but I'd almost found you. This was primarily due to the fact that Akatsuki was also looking for you. I'm pretty sure you remember how they were hunting the Jinchuuriki."

"Yes," Naruto said cautiously.

"Did you also know that a few month before I could pinpoint your location Akatsuki suddenly went dark? Our recon teams reported that the organization took heavy losses to nearly half their numbers in some altercation. It's pretty hard to gather much intel on them in general, but this was drastic."

"I only came across them once while I was hiding. I had to fight off one of their teams but was barely able to make it out alive. You can imagine why I became a ghost after that encounter," that was as close to the truth as Naruto could remember. He suspected Kurama knew the whole story of what happened.

Again, he felt the onset of a potential panic attack.

"When can I see Kanaye?" he redirected the conversation to the subject he really wanted. "I don't know how long Tsunade and the Council want to continue this crap kabuki dance with me; but if there is no end in sight at least allow me to send him home. He has nothing to do with this and Konoha has no jurisdiction over him. He belongs to Fire Country, not Konohagakure."

His wanted to hit something. It was straining to be on the receiving end of these tactics. The questions and the emotions he had to endure while he doublespoke wore at his mind with the voracity of a sandstorm. It was easier to lie when he wasn't in Konoha. He didn't have to deal with people who knew what to look for or how to pick up on minor tells that could give him away. Naruto needed to keep Jiraiya from pressing him on why he left. He could give the old ninja something else. Something that both he and Tsunade would find equally valuable.

"Look, I can show my good faith by telling you where I've been for the past nine years. That essentially takes away any hope of me returning to that life."

From the way Jiraiya's shoulders moved forward ever so slightly Naruto knew he'd made the right move. Kurama seemed to hum a tentative approval and settled back down into dormancy.

"That's quite a risk to take. You seemed to have gone through great pains in making sure neither your son nor this other family of yours know about your past life," Jiraiya pointed out.

Pausing for only a moment, Naruto remained steadfast. He shrugged.

"It doesn't matter now. Kanaye's a smart kid and he's probably come to his own conclusions. Becoming a father has taught me how perceptive children are," he focused on the window again. Seeing the sun and the cloudless sky helped him continue.

"Besides, I've already told Sasuke where I've been. If I tried leaving now, he'd be the first one to hunt me down."

When Jiraiya chuckled at that indisputable fact, Naruto began to tell him about the small farming village he'd called home for many years.

**—. &.&.—**

Two hours and twelve minutes. Sasuke was keeping track of the time when he knew shouldn't have been. He had delivered Naruto to the Hokage, thus completing his asset monitoring. It wasn't his place to sit and wait to see when Naruto came out of interrogation.

But here he was, hiding away in an empty break room, counting down the minutes that went by.

Elbows balanced on his thighs, Sasuke leaned forward to support his head on the thumbs of his linked hands. He wanted desperately to be angry.

Just angry.

He wanted an anger that wasn't diluted by feelings of conflict, or worry, or an offensive guilt. He desired a complete and utter rage that could be focused solely on Naruto. But it was proving difficult.

Growling in frustration, he shot up from his seat on the break room couch. He was too restless, and his behavior was undisciplined and trifle. Common sense told him to stop this insanity and go home. Everything was out of balance, all because he'd encountered Naruto in that godforsaken ramen stand. Where the hell was his rational mind?

Fate was a cruel thing.

Sasuke would be loath to ever speak the words, but he knew the reason he was so angry was due to how Naruto had hurt him. That idiot had hurt him in the same way that killing his brother had hurt him. He had loved Itachi just as fervently as he hated him for what he did to their family. And to the same effect, he'd missed Naruto just as much as he wished him gone. The biggest offense was the way the other man had seemed to move on. He had gotten married and had a son while Sasuke had spent five years  _mourning_  him. The thought caused a swell of fury to bubble up from inside Sasuke with such ferocity it threatened to explode from his body.

He needed to leave.

The dark-haired ninja made a straight line for the door. It was only until he reached for the doorknob that lucidity broke through his veil of anger. He had to make sure his face didn't betray him when he exited the room.

Stoic. That's what he needed to be. That's how he always needed to be.

A quick glance to a mirror on the opposite wall reassured him that his features were a blank slate. Letting out a deep breath, as if to mentally purge himself of any lingering emotions, Sasuke opened the door.

The hallway outside was mercifully empty.

—.o.—

"Uchiha-san, you're still here. Wonderful! If I can have a moment, please."

Sasuke had just returned to the main hall of the Tower offices when he was accosted by Tsunade's assistant.

"What is it?" he said tersely.

"Hokage-sama would like to see you in her office. I believe it pertains to an assignment," the kunoichi did not miss a beat with their exchange. She remembered Sasuke's particular style of conversation and kept things straight to the point. He could respect her competency for that.

Sasuke nodded in acknowledgement and changed his route. It took him less than a minute to reach the large double doors of the Hokage's office. He knocked once, announcing himself.

Instead of verbally granting him admission, Tsunade opened the door.

"Ah, perfect timing as always, Sasuke. Come in."

She stepped aside so he could enter the room. Once he passed the threshold, Tsunade closed the door and gestured for him to follow her. Wordlessly, Sasuke complied.

The Hokage led him to another room, tucked away behind a sliding panel wall. It was a traditional tearoom; most likely used to entertain Fire Country dignitaries and the other members of the Konoha Council. Tsunade was showing him a lot of ceremony for the benign task of assigning him a new mission.

"I hope you'll forgive all the extra fanfare, Sasuke, but I felt that this was more appropriate for what I'm about to ask you," Tsunade took her place at the low-lying table in the center of the room. She motioned toward the pillow seat opposite hers.

Sasuke considered the entire room before removing his shoes and taking the offered seat. He watched as the Hokage prepared a pot of green tea that had been set up on a tray to her right. His brow furrowed into a grimace as he tried to make sense of all this preamble.

"Forgive me, Godaime-sama, but what exactly is this about?" he asked politely.

Tsunade poured the steeped tea into a single cup. "I have an assignment for you, Sasuke. But it's meant to be completely voluntary. You're free to say no if you don't agree with the conditions."

"And what would this assignment be?"

With an impressive amount of grace and flourish, the Hokage replaced the pot and presented the lone cup of tea to Sasuke. It surprised him how much formality she was giving him. It seemed almost symbolic.

A thought occurred to him.

Delving deep into his memory of barely remembered history lessons; he sorted out his knowledge of archaic rites. An old aunt of his had once explained the art of shinobi social contracts. They were simple actions done to emphasize the significance of a favor or compact being entered into between ninja. Few still practiced these rituals because of their implications. To dishonor one of these arrangements meant a mark against your personal honor as a shinobi.

Sasuke stared at the cup held in Tsunade's hands. He was curious about what it was she felt warranted such a deal.

"I'm taking it that this assignment is of great importance to you."

A smile spread across Tsunade's face as she looked at him.

"You never cease to impress me, Uchiha. Not even that old fool Jiraiya would get this," she said good-naturedly.

"To answer your question, yes," she added, "What I'm going to ask is nothing remarkably different from any mission you've done, but it is  _very_  important to me."

The Hokage had yet to put down the teacup. Sasuke didn't think she meant this offering to be a proclamation of his agreement. It was probably meant to gauge his willingness to listen.

He graciously took the cup from her and placed it in front of him.

Nodding her approval, Tsunade continued: "I'd like to assign you a genin team. More accurately, I'd like to place a single genin in your charge."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"There won't be any Academy graduates for at least another season, Godaime-sama. Who are you intending to assign to me?"

"As you already know, I have been wrestling with a proper solution for the Naruto problem," there was a grim undertone to her voice.

"Placing him under house arrest was a tolerable move, especially when the intent was to have him interrogated. But I am running out of political capital with my fellow Council members. Something significant needs to be down with him soon. If I fail to carry out any type of disciplinary action for what he did, imagine the kind of message that would send to Konoha's nin?"

He understood her point — inaction could cause dissent within the ranks. It had been common knowledge that Naruto was a favorite of the Hokage's. If he was allowed to desert without incurring the punishment of a missing nin, it would make the Council leadership appear weak.

The idiot had no idea what he'd done with his leaving.

"I'm still not clear on what this has to do with me getting a—"

Sasuke stopped.

"You're planning on demoting him?" he asked skeptically.

The idea seemed ludicrous. At the time Naruto had left Konoha he'd only ranked as a chounin. That was understood to be the lowest rank any competent ninja could have. Stripping someone of that title and relegating them to genin was…humiliating.

Tsunade gave a heavy sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"I plan on giving him two options: He can choose to go through a tribunal, labeled as a missing nin, where he is guaranteed to serve at least five years in an ANBU prison for his desertion. Or he can forfeit his autonomy and rank as a ninja, and remain under the careful supervision of a jounin for six months. After that he will be reevaluated before the Council. I'm hoping his common sense will lead him to the most rational option."

"And he's the one you want to assign to me? You want me to be his babysitter for six months?" The thought made Sasuke's blood boil. Again he was being saddled with the mess of Naruto's carelessness.

"The reason I'm asking you, Sasuke, instead of anyone else is because I want you to get through to him. You've had the longest rapport with him," Tsunade said. "Use that to find out what really happened eleven years ago. I need an unequivocal vouch for his character that I can use to shut both Koharu and Homura up."

He didn't like the Hokage's plan in the least. Agreeing to be Naruto's jounin supervisor could end up backfiring in her face. What good could his involvement do when he wanted to break the blond's face in every time he saw him.

"What about his son?" Sasuke hadn't heard any references to the boy. "If I agreed to take him on, is the proposed plan to let him stay in Naruto's custody? Will I be responsible for the both of them? Where exactly will they be housed? The apartment Naruto used to rent has had various new tenants over the years."

"I certainly don't plan on taking a child away from his father," Tsunade responded. "Let Naruto decide what he wants to do with his son. He might decide to send him back to his wife's family. As for housing, the Uchiha Estate is still in escrow. You hadn't bothered reclaiming it when your brother died."

Sasuke frowned. Looking down at the cooling cup of tea in front of him, his face was reflected back in the swarthy liquid. What Tsunade was asking him to do would test his fortitude like few things have. He honestly felt that he was the wrong person to do this.

**—. &.&.—**

"WHAT?!"

The roar of indignation that burst forth from Naruto nearly shook the walls of Tsunade's office. She had just told him his ultimatums.

"Calm down, Naruto," she demanded.

Before deciding to bring him in, Jiraiya had briefed her on the information he'd gathered during their questioning. All of Naruto's answers had been guarded, and the blond seemed particularly defensive when assertions were made about his temperament in the past. Jiraiya didn't believe that he was lying about being a rice farmer for the last several years, but Naruto was being deliberately evasive about the details of the his first year away. It was recommended that she conducted further investigations into that timeframe.

Jiraiya felt that there was more there, especially when Akatsuki was bound to have been hunting Naruto at the time.

The man in question scoffed at her request for restraint.

"Calm down? You want me to calm down after the bullshit you just told me?" Naruto glared at her with unbridled rage.

Tsunade's patience was worn thin. The fool couldn't see that she was trying to help him as best she could.

"I want you to calm down because you are in no position to act outraged, Uzumaki. You abandoned your village for eleven years. There was an oath you took when you became a shinobi! You couldn't have possibly thought the repercussions would be any different. Count yourself lucky that you aren't dead."

His angry pacing stopped but he continued to look at her balefully. She pointed to the seat that laid discarded on the floor in front of her desk — from when he'd shot up out of it to rave at her. Naruto snatched it up and sat back down. She could see that he was roiling in place.

"Consider your options carefully," she said firmly.

"Either you go before the military tribunal and spend a minimum of five years locked up or you take the demotion for six months. You decide how your son will see you after you leave this room."

It was unfair to use the boy against him but Tsunade wanted to make sure his pride didn't cloud his judgment.

Naruto pursed his lips disagreeably.

"He's going to be left out of this either way, correct?"

"Of course he is. He's done nothing wrong. You can have him sent back to your family if you'd like."

"I would," he said tersely.

"Then what is your decision," Tsunade glanced over at the empty teacup resting on top of a folder of documents.

There was a pregnant silence before Naruto folded his arm and grudgingly declared that he would accept the terms of a demotion. Relief secretly ran through her body in waves.

"Who will I be released to?"

"You will be under the twenty-four hour supervision of Uchiha Sasuke, your juonin administrator."

Naruto shook his head and rolled his eyes, a sarcastic bark of laughter leaving him. " _Of course_  it would be him. I might as well have chosen the tribunal."

Tsunade frowned and slammed her palm down on the hard surface of her desk. The solid oak creaked in protest at her abuse.

"Shut the hell up and be grateful you still have someone who's willing to put their own reputation on the line for you, brat. You wronged a lot of people with your selfishness."

This reprimand seemed to cut through Naruto's ignorant behavior because he had the good sense to look ashamed. He fixed his posture and bowed his head in wordless apology.

She felt vindicated by it. Tsunade had extracted a substantial promise from a good man on Naruto's behalf. She would make sure he understood that.

**—. &.o.o.&. —**


	10. What Was Mine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to thank all of you readers here at Ao3 for your wonderful feedback and support. I always see each one of your messages and appreciate them all.

**IX.**

**What Was Mine**

It was done.

Sasuke had committed himself to a task that the angriest parts of him railed against; but it was done. He'd accepted the Hokage's compact, launching the advancement of an ungodly amount of paperwork. His jounin status was now amended to "advanced field instructor", officially labeling him as the squad leader of his own genin team—of one. The entire thing was bordering on ridiculous.

"Is all this necessary?" he asked, gesturing to the sizable packet of documents he'd been presented with.

The briefing room's other occupant, Tsunade's assistant, smiled apologetically and nodded. It was a shame Sasuke couldn't remember her name.

"I'm sorry, Uchiha-san, but yes. There's a considerable amount of process that's required for this whole thing. Hokage-sama wanted to ensure that every licensed measure was taken," she said.

Taking a polite step forward, she tapped the top of the packet, which lay on the conference table in the center of the room.

"You should also keep in mind that this includes the property release forms for the Uchiha Estate. I know you hadn't specified whether you wanted to take it out of escrow, but it was agreed that you should have them anyway."

She paused. A cautious look came over her features as she visibly considered something. She spoke again: "At the very least, I hope it can provide some closure for you, Uchiha-san."

Sasuke grimaced at the unexpected sentiment. He didn't want or need it, but considering how idiotically generous he was being that day, he decided to forgo any dirty looks.

Sensing his mood from the way her comment was received, the other ninja cleared her throat awkwardly and fell back into a businesslike demeanor.

"You'll find everything you'll need to fully assess your new assignment inside," she finished.

Glad she was done with her frivolous gesture, Sasuke grunted in acknowledgment. He picked up the packet to quickly peruse its contents. It contained official papers releasing Naruto into his custody as well as a variety of other documents outlining the guidelines of the blond's demotion. There was a file a few centimeters thick with compiled information on Naruto's background, skill level, medical records, and family history. From Sasuke's cursory reading he noticed that only one name was listed under Naruto's parents column—Uzumaki Kushina.

"This is more information than I expected," he said, "Certainly more than I thought I would need."

Tsunade's assistant nodded again.

"Actually, that file is standard for all genin team leaders. Because they are responsible for their team's full integration as ninja, it's expected that every team leader know their members thoroughly."

He looked from her to the file dubiously. To think that all this data was collected for a simple thing like a genin team perturbed him. It made him wonder about the type of information Kakashi had available about them when they were Team 7. He closed the file and placed it back within the packet.

"This is—a lot to take in," Sasuke replied. Not even his past missions as ANBU were this extensive.

"It's a great responsibility you've taken on, Uchiha-san. Hokage-sama has placed her complete faith in you to fulfill this."

Her reassurance hardly helped to inspire him.

When she stepped forward again, she was handing him a slim wooden box the length of half his forearm.

"What's this?" he asked.

"I'm not sure exactly. Hokage-sama only said that it was something you needed to present to Uzumaki-san."

Sasuke set the packet aside, taking the box from her. He unclasped both the latches that kept it shut and lifted the lid. When he saw what was inside he wanted to laugh at its irony.

Fourteen years ago he would have never guessed that  _he_ would be handing  _Naruto_  back his forehead protector. After that desperate fight at the Valley of the End, the blond had shoved Sasuke's discarded forehead protector in his chest and swore at him for trying to abandon them—for trying to abandon him. His tirade about how Sasuke was a brother to him, and how he would rather have died than allow the other to destroy that family, had moved something in Sasuke. Somehow, Naruto's insane tenacity to keep Sasuke from going had been just enough to waiver his resolve to leave.

Then a few years later all that ranting had proven to be a pretentious lie.

He'd snapped the lid shut so suddenly that the woman in front of him jumped in surprise. Before she could question him, Sasuke spoke: "I'll make sure he gets it."

The box was re-latched and placed atop the packet on the table; he wasn't going to fall victim to any sympathy for Naruto. The other man had lied and abandoned him in the end. Naruto only knew how to manipulate people for his own means.

Not for the first time that day, Sasuke wondered why he had agreed to do this. Tsunade's plan to redeem Naruto could be doomed to fail because she was asking him to take of it.

Breathing in deeply, Sasuke braced himself for what he was about to endeavor.

"When do I receive him?" he turned back to the Hokage's assistant.

She opted to ignore his outburst and gathered herself.

"I'll let Hokage-sama know that you're ready and have Uzumaki-san escorted to this room," she said.

With a final glance over her shoulder at him, she quietly exited the briefing room.

Alone, Sasuke stared at the packet of documents and the wooden box. He needed to be diligent about this assignment. The Hokage was counting on him to help guide Naruto through the political game his return had invoked. He would tackle this mission like he did any other mission. His personal feelings didn't matter.

That's why he'd said yes to the Hokage and that was what he'd continue to tell himself.

—.o. —

It wasn't long before Sasuke heard the shuffling of feet outside the door. Enough time had passed for him to finish reading the information he'd need to go over; he was ready for his new charge. When the briefing room door opened, Tsunade's assistant entered first. Then came Naruto's tall form. Immediately, the blond's eyes searched the room, and as they settled on Sasuke, a look of resignation hijacked his expression.

He no longer wore the nondescript clothes they'd given him several hours earlier. His shaggy blond hair had been pulled back into a short ponytail, and he was dressed in a dark-gray fitted t-shirt with a pair of standard issue fatigue pants and high-top sandals. Layered beneath the top was a mesh undershirt that peeked out over its collar and extended to his elbows. He didn't look like the civilian Sasuke had passed on that morning.

"Here you are, Uzumaki-san. Uchiha-san will fill you in on everything you need to know about your new status," Tsunade's assistant informed.

Naruto's gaze lingered on Sasuke for a few seconds before looking down at the woman. A smile spread across his lips as he dipped his head in gratitude.

"Thanks…" his voice trailed off expectantly.

She froze as if hit with a stun tag. Her cheeks turned a suspiciously rosy hue and it made Sasuke want to roll his eye in disgust. It was absurd how Naruto could charm her so easily.

What little respect the jounin had for her was dwindling.

"Mai," she said slowly, "Chino Mai, Uzumaki-san, and you're quite welcome."

Again, Sasuke wanted to roll his eyes.

"Chino-san," he interjected.

She seemed to break out of her trance at the sound of her name and whipped around to face him, clearly embarrassed.

"Thank you, but I need to brief my subordinate. Now," Sasuke said pointedly.

"Y-yes, of course, Uchiha-san. Please let me know if there's anything you need," she scrambled out the door in a hasty exit. Before she could close it, Naruto stopped her.

"Actually, Chino-san. Unless Sasuke objects, I was hoping someone could tell my kid I'll be back soon. I know he's been with Sakura all day, but he's probably getting anxious."

Mai (Sasuke would never have asked for her name) looked back at him in askance. He nodded dismissively; there was no reason why she couldn't fulfill Naruto's request. Accepting his cue, she politely agreed to do as the blond asked. With the soft  _click_  of the door, the two men were alone.

Naruto's smile dropped instantly and he turned to Sasuke with an intense look. His stare caused the jounin to square his shoulders and give his own unwavering glare.

"Tch, so this is what the great rivalry between Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto has come to," Naruto announced sarcastically. He grabbed one of the conference table chairs and planted himself firmly in it.

Sasuke tsked disdainfully at him.

"You did this to yourself, Naruto. No one else is to blame here," he said, straightening up from where he'd been leaning against the table.

"I'm well aware of that, Sasuke," Naruto snapped.

"Then also be aware that you don't have a right to feel indignant."

That seemed to shut the other man up, but he continued to stew. Sasuke crossed his arms and took on a serious air.

"Do you understand what is going to happen from here on out?" he asked.

Naruto leaned back in his seat and placed a hand on top of the table.

"It is to my understanding that, as an alternative to facing a military tribunal, I've accepted the revocation of my chuunin status; and have forfeited my autonomy as a ninja to your supervision. After six months, my progress is to be evaluated by the Council."

The eloquence of his response had Sasuke raising an eyebrow. A part of him wondered if Naruto even understood half of what he'd said.

"Hmm, those are some big words you have there, Naruto," Sasuke quipped.

An insulted looked flashed across the blond's face but it quickly morphed into a defiant glare.

"You'll be happy to know that I can also read and write, Uchiha-sensei," he replied in an obnoxiously saccharine tone.

Sasuke snorted. He knew this comeback was meant as a  _fuck you_ , and that Naruto was pulling his words for the sake of his predicament. It was wrong of him to be petty, especially with the seniority he held over the blond, but he could afford himself that one jab.

"I'm glad," he smirked.

Then he got back to the matter at hand.

"To expand on that: The terms of your six month probation require you to be fully re-integrated back into the shinobi community by the time you're reevaluated. This means you'll be starting from scratch with your missions record. All your previous operations have been invalidated and no longer count toward your ranking. You are expected to undergo training to ensure you've retained a decent jutsu level to possibly be reassigned your chuunin rank. And lastly, you are to establish a meaningful and satisfactory level of trust with the citizenry of Konoha to prove you're worthy of being granted your independence back."

Naruto listened silently as Sasuke outlined the provisions of his demotion. His expression remained neutral but Sasuke could see how the fingers of his hand twitched with restraint. The jounin continued.

"My role is to help you accomplish all of this. I am to be your mentor, team leader, and general counsel. It is my responsibility to get you up to code with current nin culture and protocol. I'll be acquiring all your missions, and I'll be training you. I'll also be in charge of getting you settled back in as a Konoha resident and taking care of your housing situation."

When he'd been reading these terms in the documents Mai had provided they'd seemed immaterial. But as he spoke them out loud, their weight began to fully register with Sasuke. He was sentencing himself to spend almost every waking moment with Naruto. Tsunade had cornered him into an arduous situation and he'd accepted it like a fool.

It was going to take every ounce of discipline he had to keep him from dishonoring himself.

"Do you have any questions?" Sasuke asked—his voice unfettered by his internal dilemma.

Naruto's hand was clenched into a fist and his lips were pressed into a thin line. It had been for the best that he wasn't issued any weaponry yet; it made Sasuke having to potentially put him down in closed quarters much easier.

Admittedly, some of the terms he'd gone over were demanding, but Sasuke felt the punishment fit the crime.

"What exactly does 'meaningful and satisfactory level of trust with the citizenry' mean?" Naruto's voice was surprisingly calm.

"I wasn't exactly anyone's golden boy before I left, and after it's revealed that I'm a deserter, that won't change."

Sasuke didn't have an immediate answer for him because  _he_  didn't have any trust for Naruto. That task in question could prove challenging, but he would figure something out.

"The Kyuubi's attack was nearly thirty years ago. Most of the people who really remember it are much older now and the younger generations aren't that invested. You may not like to hear this—actually, you could—but not many people in Konoha remember you. Only those of us who interacted with you regularly do."

Naruto gave a strained smile. "Sadly, that does make me feel better."

He placed his other hand on the table in front of him.

"So where are you guys putting me? I only have the things I was traveling with and whatever money that's left over from this trip is going back with Kanaye."

That was the crux of all this. Being Naruto's babysitter for six months was manageable, but it was where Sasuke knew he had to put him that chafed. There was no rational reason why he couldn't put Naruto in a house on the Uchiha Estate. The grounds were big enough to setup a training quad and there were a number of homes meant for moderate to large families. But it meant Sasuke had to go back there and see all that emptiness. He was sure all the corpses were gone, but what of all the blood?

"You'll being staying on the Uchiha Estate," he said. Hopefully, Naruto couldn't see how tightly his hand gripped his bicep.

"What? I—Sasuke, I don't feel right about that," Naruto looked genuinely worried.

"Decision's already been made," Sasuke unfolded his arms and reached down for the wooden box still perched on top of the packet. The blond's eye followed his motion. He slid the box across the table toward Naruto; a curious look appeared on the other man's face.

"You're giving me gifts now?"

"Hardly," Sauske said, annoyed. "You're going to need that if you want to be considered a Konoha ninja again."

Naruto pulled the box closer and open it. He hesitated half way through.

"You—kept this?" the blond didn't look up, enthralled by the box's contents.

"No, you have the Hokage to thank for that."

Something unreadable settled in Naruto eyes. He gazed intently at the returned forehead protector, his expression distant, as if his mind was no longer there in the briefing room.

"I see," he let the box's lid fall back completely.

There was a tenderness to the way he lifted the headband out of the box, and it surprised Sasuke how intimate the moment had become. Naruto ran the fingers of one hand over the metal plate, mapping each of the scratches and grooves in its surface. He traced the contours of the Konohagakure insignia at the center, a tiny smile tugging at his lips.

"I wonder—" he turned the forehead protector over to look at the back and grinned when he confirmed whatever it was he was looking for.

"Yup, it's the same one!"

Sasuke made an impatient sound, reminding the other that he was still in the room. When Naruto looked up at him, he still held his excited smile. He wasn't sure why, but Sasuke hadn't been prepared for that, and it gave him pause. The uncomfortable flutter that ran through his chest as a result disturbed him greatly.

"See?" Naurto turned the back of the forehead protector toward Sasuke to show him the faded scribbling on the band.

_Property of Uzumaki Naruto. Dattebayo!_

Sasuke gave an exasperated sigh and rolled his eyes. How was it possible for Naruto's old possessions to sound as idiotic as he used to be?

"Yeah, yeah. Sigh all you want, but I never lost this sucker," Naruto said as he tied the forehead protector securely around his head.

"I suppose not. Not even when you left it behind," the jounin's comment quickly sobered the mood again.

Naruto's shoulders sagged at his words and he slowly lowered his hands back down to the table. Strangely, seeing this didn't give Sasuke any gratification. He wanted Naruto to feel ashamed. The worst the other felt, the more relentless his vindictive side wanted to be; but these small victories tasted like ash to him. They didn't make him any less angry.

"I'm sorry for leaving you, Sasuke."

The words had come so suddenly, Sasuke wasn't sure he had heard them correctly.

"What?"

Naruto turned to him; his blue eyes focused only on him.

"I'm sorry I left you," the blond repeated, "You meant a lot to me and it hurt to have to leave you all behind. I hope you can believe that."

Sasuke frowned. The same bothersome feeling in his chest twisted painfully beneath his ribcage.

"No. I don't."

He would not fall victim to Naruto again.

**—** **. &.&.—**

"NO!"

Kanaye's outburst was followed by the forceful slam of the bathroom door.

Naruto let out an aggravated sigh. He was having one of the shittiest days in the history of shitty days. He strode across the inn room to the bathroom door and tried the doorknob; it was locked.

"Kanaye, open this door right now," he demanded.

"No!"

"Kanaye, I'm not playing around."

Naruto was trying desperately to keep his calm. He didn't want to end up shouting at his son during this delicate conversation.

"No, 'tou-san, you promised! You promised me last year that we'd see all of Fire and now you want to send me home."

Naruto sighed again. Why the hell was this happening to him?

He glanced over his shoulder at the other three people in the room. Sakura looked uncomfortable, Kakashi looked amused, and Sasuke—he didn't want to dwell on Sasuke at the moment.

"Do you all mind? I'm trying to have a private conversation with my kid," he groused.

Sakura gave him a pitying look before heading for the door; Kakashi followed her out. Sasuke stayed exactly where he was, which made Naruto want to throttle him.

The blond didn't know when he was going to catch a break. Sasuke had been nothing but pushy with him since they'd left the Tower, and his heavy-handedness was getting old. It also didn't help that he was still sore from his talk with Sasuke earlier.

It had hurt when he'd asked Sasuke if he believed that Naruto cared. The way he'd said no, without hesitation, was painful. Naruto couldn't understand what could have happened to make Sasuke distrust him so deeply. He knew that the other man was upset with him for leaving, but he thought his letter would have let him know how much he had to go.

"Really, Sasuke?" Naruto challenged, "I can't have fifteen minutes to talk to my distraught son?"

Sasuke looked at him flatly and unfolded his arms. He stepped forward until he was an arm's length away.

"Fifteen minutes," he said. Then he walked out of the room.

Honestly, sometimes, fuck Sasuke.

He turned his attention back to the door.

"Na-chan, open the door. You know we don't have conversations like this."

"I don't wanna talk."

Naruto could hear the tears in Kanaye's voice; his heart sank. He knew this would happen, but had hoped he could mitigate it somehow. His wife had been so much better at this than he was.

"Come on, Na-chan, don't be like that," he said softly, "This isn't how family treats each other. You know that."

There were a few more moments of sniffling before Naruto heard the  _click_  of the door being unlocked. He slowly pushed it open and peered inside. Kanaye had crawled into the bathtub and hidden himself behind the half drawn shower curtain. He could just make out the boy's blurry silhouette through its kitschy pattern design.

Opening the door wider, he entered the bathroom.

"Why are you hiding away, kiddo?"

"Because you're not being fair," Kanaye replied with a quivering voice.

"It's not that I don't want to finish our trip, Na-chan. I just have to postpone it to take care of some things."

"But why do I have to go back home? And why aren't you coming too?"

Naruto sighed. How could he tell his son that he couldn't go with him because he was serving his punishment for deserting his Hidden Village?

"I'm sending you back home because I think it would be best, and because I need to stay in Konoha for a while to be a ninja again."

Kanaye's outline turned its head toward him.

"You mean like Sakura-oneesan? She experiments and fixes people all day."

This description made Naruto curious as to what Sakura and Kanaye got up to when she watched him. But he set that thought aside for another time.

"Not exactly. More like Kakashi-san and Sasuke-san."

"You mean weird guy and jerk-face?"

He couldn't help snickering at the nicknames his son had given the two men. Naruto quickly peeked back into the inn room to make sure it was still empty.

"That's not nice," he tried to keep the amusement out of his voice, "But yes, like those two."

Kanaye slowly crawled out from behind the shower curtain and looked up at him. His eyes were puffy and red from crying, and his nose was runny; but Naruto was glad he wasn't hiding anymore.

"I still don't get it. Why do I have to go?"

He grabbed a face towel from a rack and knelt down in front of the boy. Carefully, Naruto dried his son's eyes and wiped his nose.

"It's very complicated, Na-chan. There are a lot of things going on and I'm worried that I might not be able to look after you properly while I'm here. You love obaa-chan and ojii-chan. They'll take care of you while I'm away for a bit."

"But when will you be back?"

Naruto didn't have an answer to that question.

He glanced up at the clock mounted on the bathroom wall. It was 10:03 pm. The day had been too long and Kanaye should have been in bed hours ago.

"How 'bout this, let's get some sleep and then tackle everything in the morning. Yeah?"

Kanaye shook his head stubbornly and crossed his arm. "Ugh uh, I'm not sleepy."

"No? Well, I sure am," Naruto let out a massive yawn, scratching the top of his head for added effect.

Just as he'd hoped, Kanaye's pouting face broke into an involuntary yawn as well. The boy rubbed his eye drowsily and insisted that he still wasn't tired.

Naruto smiled. Children were blessedly simple at times.

—.o. —

The midsummer night was pleasantly temperate—a small kindness, considering the frenzied series of events that had transpired that week.

"Well, this sure is a lovely evening for a reunion," Kakashi's contented voice shattered the night's quiet.

Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto turned in unison to look at him wearily. This did nothing to deter the man's carefree stargazing. All four members of Team 7 were standing on the inn's roof above Naruto's room at his behest. The night was lovely, but there were mixed feelings as to whether it warranted this reunion. At least that was how Naruto felt.

Sakura took a deep breath and exhaled, looking up at the sky. She placed one hand on her hip and another on her opposite shoulder.

"You know, in spite of your grotesque absentmindedness, Kakashi, you're right. It is a nice evening for a reunion."

Naruto was still doubtful, but he would play along if it meant getting over this awkward moment. He placed a casual arm on Sakura's free shoulder and stared up at the stars. Sasuke stood beside him; though, it was unlikely that he'd participate in any friendly contact. However, he was stargazing too, and his hands were in his pockets instead of his arms being crossed.

That was a better sign than nothing at all.

**—. &.o.o.&. —**


	11. An Honorable Thing

**X.**

**An Honorable Thing**

A melody of hushed voices was ever present here. It was a whispering symphony of slow crescendos and sudden dips in tempo. The sound tempted Kurama to sing to it, but the creature hadn't sung in many centuries.

From the darkness, a single voice strayed from the rest, imploring the Kyuubi to serenade it. It cooed and pleaded in an obscenely seductive way, but the fox ignored it. Kurama was all too familiar with this voice.

For the past several years, the same whisper spoke out of the many—sometimes taunting Kurama and other times trying to bargain with it. On occasion it would amuse the fox with a request to be told a story; and sometimes Kurama did, simply to pass the time. But at the moment, Kurama was busy and did not care to grant the voice its attention.

Realizing it would get no reply, the voice faded back into the stream of whispers—an air of annoyance hanging in its wake. Kurama waved its tails languidly in the darkness, displaying how much it didn't care about the voice's displeasure.

It had more important things to do, like keeping that fool Naruto from doing something stupid—again.

Abruptly, the pitch of the whispers changed, shifting from a steady tone to a quivering screech. It caused Kurama to perk its head up and looked out into the nothingness.

Naruto was distressed. The sensation that came with this knowledge was sharp with sadness and reeked of shame. It vibrated anxiously and twisted into continual knots.

Kurama huff a heavy stream of air through its nostrils and stared flatly. This had become a scheduled event with Naruto ever since he'd returned to that damned village. Someone or something would evoke a sense of nostalgia in the brat, and then the guilt would come. It was bothersome.

_No. I don't._

Those words wove themselves into the trembling mood around the fox.

Of course. It was the Uchiha brat that caused all this ruckus; it was always him.

"Well, at least you're concerned enough to be annoyed," came another voice; one that was unfamiliar to Kurama.

It turned its gaze downward to see a man-sized figure manifest out of the darkness in front of it. One look at who it was and the Kyuubi's lips curled back into a sneer. The apparition was Namikaze Minato; the man who had caged it in Naruto, and who'd kept it here when it had the chance to escape.

"You!" Kurama's great voice boomed throughout the emptiness. "You have the audacity to speak to me after what you and that woman have done?"

Minato looked up at it, unaffected by its outrage. A faint glow clung to his form; the bright hue of his Hokage robe seemed to amplify this effect.

He smiled thoughtfully before answering: "Yes, I do."

Offended, Kurama swiped one of its giant claws at him, but Minato's body faded into a flash and reappeared to the other side of it. Again Kurama swatted at him, and again, Minato evaded. The fox growled in frustration.

"Why are you here?" it demanded. "You should have faded once you kept the seal intact."

Determining that Kurama wouldn't lash out again, Minato stepped forward.

"You're right, I should have," he agreed, "but you're keeping me here—just like you're keeping the rest of Naruto's memories."

The fox growled again.

"You and your kin seem to share the same knack for annoying me, mortal. I won't forgive you for not letting him remove that retched seal."

Minato frowned, placing a hand on his hip.

"That's perfectly fine with me. I would never have let you trick him like that, and then leave him to die."

"Ha!" Kurama barked, "No, you just would have rather us both die."

With an unnatural speed, it dipped its head to be leveled centimeters away from the man's body. Its heated breath flung the edges of Minato's hair and robe back with its force. Despite this fearsome display, Minato didn't falter; though, he remained silent.

Kurama smiled in a wicked manner.

"It was a very selfish and human thing of you to do," it spat.

A crease formed in the center of Minato's brow as his lips pressed into a thin line. His crisp blue eyes stared resolutely into Kurama's unearthly ones.

"But it forced you to save the both of you, and you didn't come out quite as bad in the end. Not all of you is sealed away in that cage."

The fox narrowed its eyes. It lifted its head so that it could tower over Minato again.

"Tch, whatever. Don't act like you're so smart," its tails flopped impatiently. "What part of me that isn't there, is tied up here, fulfilling a bargain."

At this, Minato smiled.

"Yes, and you've been doing so very admirably," he said.

"You know, you're not as consumed by hatred as you claim. I'd go as far as saying you're quite honorable."

Kurama scoffed at him, annoyed. "Are you trying to sound cool or something?"

Minato chuckled softly and smiled wider.

"Not really," he said. Then he spoke again:

"Regardless, thank you for keeping me here until he remembers."

Kurama watched him turn away and fade back into the blackness.

—.o. —

It decided to change the landscape; Kurama had become adept at navigating Naruto's mind, especially the parts it kept shuttered from him.

Minato's visit had pissed it off. How dare that conniving asshole try to act grateful toward it? He was the reason why Kurama was a shadow of its former self: he'd stolen half of what Kurama was. These mortal were disgustingly infuriating and uncouth. Their species as a whole could never sum up to how exalted its beloved master, Hagoromo, was.

Angry sobs interrupted Kurama's private tirade. It turned its human form's head to see a small blond boy crying by a tree a few meters to the right—here Naruto's mental-scape took shape as a dimly lit wood.

 _'_ _I hate them! I hate them all!'_  the child proclaimed, pounding angrily at the tree's trunk.

Kurama felt inclined to agree with the boy's tearful ranting. These humans did nothing but cause harm wherever they went.

It continued its trek through the wood. Many more specters of Naruto's memories appeared and disappeared around Kurama.

One stumbled into the fox's path, dragging a disheveled man with him. He punched the man viciously and swore at him, demanding not to be messed with. This seventeen year-old version of Naruto paused and glanced over at Kurama. Enigmatically, he smirked at it. Annoyed by the obstruction, Kurama glared at him, opting to sidestep the bloody brawl the teen had initiated.

Most of the scenes that wove in and out of the cluster of trees were of this nature. They portrayed an angry and aggressive side of Naruto that he was no longer aware of, because Kurama kept it that way—that had been their bargain. But regrettably, not all of these scenarios were of anger. A few depicted a despondence so depressing it made Kurama's stomach churn. Those were the memories it preferred to stay clear of as much as possible.

It traveled further.

In this metaphysical space, there was no true semblance of time and no discernable change in lighting. Only a persistent twilight aura hung over the trees, no matter how long Kurama walked. It was within with this ambiguous amount of moments that the fox was forced to stop again. It peered down at another manifestation of Naruto's teenager self; this one wore his old orange and black tracksuit. The young man was crying woefully. He was on his knees, curled tightly into a ball, with his hand covering his face.

As if sensing Kurama's presence, he looked up; tears streaming down his face.

 _'_ _Why?'_  he asked,  _'Why are things like this? Why am_ I _like this?'_

The Kyuubi grimaced, uncomfortable. Naruto reached out, grabbing onto the bottom edge of the cloak it wore. It tried to step back but the teen held on desperately; he buried his face into the flame design at the rope's rim and continued sobbing.

At a loss, Kurama stood there stiffly. It could not bring itself to shove the young man off and continue on its way. It watched Naruto cry until the apparition faded away. The fox was grateful.

To avoid another encounter like the one that passed, it chose to veer off onto another trail.

When it had gone a number of paces, it halted.

Ahead, two more figures had appeared; though, this time Kurama could not immediately identify one as Naruto.

Both forms were writhing suggestively on the leaf-ridden ground.

After a moment, Kurama made an amused sound. It finally understood.

Of all the places for  _that_  memory to turn up.

It was possible that this had been swept up with the rest; Kurama hadn't had the time to be discriminatory when its and Naruto's arrangement had been established. Considering how closely it seemed to be tied to the time period the fox had taken, it wasn't too big of a surprise to see it here.

The more Kurama focused on the memory, the more the figures began to take on definitive features and sounds. A moan floated up into the still air, and another quickly chased after it. Soon there was a collection of sensual noises hovering in the space around the two undulating bodies.

A lascivious grin spread across Kurama's face and it drew closer, admiring the wanton way each form moved. It had been a voyeur to many of Naruto's sexual encounters—which involved a variety of men and women—but none had been more passionate than the few times the teen had been with Uchiha Sasuke.

Kurama watched as a sixteen year-old Naruto grinded into the flushed and pliant body of the Uchiha boy. Sasuke lay on his back, gazing up at him with a deliciously lewd expression in his hooded eyes. He stroked himself unabashedly as Naruto's pumping grew more excited; the leg he had wrapped around the blond's waist pulled him closer.

A moan bubbled up past Sasuke's lip, cloaked in his smooth baritone—Kurama could taste the arousal in its resonance.

Naruto smiled saucily and bent down to nip the thigh of the leg he held, just behind the crook of the knee. Sasuke gasped in surprise; an amuse smile sneaking its way on to his features.

 _'_ _You're awfully well-versed at this,'_  he mused out loud.

Naruto placed Sasuke's leg around his waist and lowered himself to lie intimately close to the other teen; he propped himself up on his forearms.

 _'_ _This coming from the guy who's taking my cock like a pro,'_  the blond whispered over Sasuke's lips. When the other bucked against him challengingly, he laughed.

_'_ _Always so testy, Sasuke."_

Kurama recognized the affection in Naruto's gaze as his eyes roamed over Sasuke face. It had seen it plenty of times when Naruto had made love to his wife.

Absently, the fox thought on how similar the Uchiha and Naruto's deceased wife looked—clearly he had a thing for dark hair and fair skin.

_'_ _You're so damn beautiful, you know that?'_

Sasuke gave a short laugh;  _'That's not the sort of thing you say to a guy, dobe.'_

 _'_ _Whatever, teme,'_ Naruto reached down to free Sasuke's hand that had been sandwiched between them; the blond also grabbed his other hand.

 _'_ _Give me your hands,"_  he said, linking both their fingers and extending their arms out to either side of them.

Naruto nuzzled the side of Sasuke's face and spoke into his ear:  _'I want us to cum together this time.'_

He punctuated his sentence by pulling out and driving himself deep into the teen beneath him. Sasuke's breath hitched. The blond made sure to direct his grinding precisely so that Sasuke's swollen member would rub consistently against both their slick stomachs.

Uchiha's body trembled and arched up into him, his arms involuntarily pulling against Naruto's grip. Naruto kept them locked in place as he began to gyrate into him with renewed fervor.

The sounds from their copulation submerged the whole wood into a cloud of erotic ambience.

It delighted Kurama; how tempted it was to keep this memory here—a perversely exquisite oasis in an anger-ridden copse. But as it observed the young men's coitus reach its climax—with Sasuke flinging his head back, biting his bottom lip and riding his orgasm—Naruto's head tilted toward the fox and stared up at it.

His bold gaze communicated the mischief Kurama could cause and the distraction it would drive Naruto to. The fox considered these things—it didn't take long for its face to split into a menacing grin.

Teenage Naruto smirked and looked away, releasing Sasuke's hands so he could caress his face and kiss him deeply.

Kurama would derive much entertainment from making the brat twist; it still remembered the way Naruto had annoyingly shut it out of his thoughts for a number days, and how irksome Minato appearance had been.

If it were to keep up its end of their deal, Kurama would do it any way it pleased.

**—** **. &.o.o.&. —**


	12. Family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, all! I've been holding onto this chapter for a long time, and honestly, it's time for me to finally let it go. If you haven't done so, please check out the one-shot that precedes this: Marginal.
> 
> This chapter is unbeta'd, so I apologize ahead of time for any typos. As always, I hope you enjoy!

**XI.**

 

**Family**

 

Naruto sat at the edge of the bed, watching the slow rise and fall of his son's chest.  He took in the boy’s sleeping face, unable to shake the disquieting notion that Kanaye was still so young.  For a single, irrational moment the concept frightened him.  What could he do to shield this young life from the unsavory realities of his own?  Could Kanaye come to understand why Naruto wanted to send him away, or would he begin to resent him and think of it only as abandonment?

The looming possibility that Kanaye could hate him made Naruto sick to his stomach.  All the determination that had fueled him while in Tsunade’s office was gone now, leaving him in the uncomfortable company of his uncertainty.  His situation was evolving.  Rather than locking him up, Tsunade wanted to reintegrate him.  This did nothing to change the fact that he was still confined to Konoha, but at least the choice of having his son here or not was entirely in his hands.  That was what he had wanted, the option to keep Kanaye safe from all that was happening.  But having the ability to choose didn’t make Naruto any more prepared to decide.

One hand gently brushed across Kanaye’s forehead to clear his hair from his eyes.  The boy wrinkled his nose reflexively and made a small whining sound in his sleep; he curled further into the security of the covers.

Naruto needed to be sure that he was making the right decision, indisputably.  However, the man he was—the man he was choosing to be—was horribly ineffective at making the right call.  He lacked the confidence to make his decision without second-guessing himself.  Naruto found it frustrating, because he knew it never used to be like this.

“I can’t keep this up, Kaiya,” he whispered under his breath, bringing his hand back to his lap.  “I can’t continue to be this ‘someone else’ anymore.”

He thought back on the words his late wife had said to him the first year they’d met: _“You can be someone else if the past is too painful.”_

They’d been offered to him like a panacea, helping him to ward off the fear he’d found himself with those many years ago.  He’d taken their sentiment deep within himself and hollowed out what was wrong—all the things that made him afraid: being a jinchuuriki; being a missing-nin; being … him.  He had shed it all and became someone else.

Someone who didn’t have the same troubles, someone who was simpler.

His eyes fell away from Kanaye and settled on the rumpled bed sheets.  That person didn’t make the kind of decisions he needed to make.  That person didn’t have a place in Konoha, and he should have known that the moment he’d chosen to set foot in the village.  But acknowledging the truth left him disappointed.  He could no longer ignore the way he’d taken Kaiya’s well-meaning words and used them as an excuse to run from himself.  The reality of it sickened him.

God, he was beginning to see why Kurama had been so disgusted with him.

Huffing out a long sigh, Naruto looked up to stare at the window.  Through the partially drawn curtains a single beam of moonlight filtered in.  His eyes absently followed its path across the room to where the light caught the bottom edge of his bed.  A few inches from its feathered outline sat the folded stack of his new Konoha uniform and the headband on top of it.  The metal plate of his forehead protector glowed with the faintest reflective light, as if swelling with some triumphant pride.

The fact that Tsunade had safeguarded it for so long weighed on him.  He hated the position he was being forced into, but he couldn’t help feeling guilty.  Everything about being back filled him with guilt.  Though, the worst part of it was Sasuke.

Sasuke—his new team leader.

This filled Naruto with new levels of frustration.  Another integral part of his situation was the probationary period he’d have to spend under the critical eye of the other ninja.  He didn’t know how things would turn out considering the obvious dislike Sasuke had for him.  Sasuke’s anger threw him off, and it upset him that he couldn’t understand it.  The other man had been his best friend—his other half.  Of all the people that could have misunderstood his leaving, why was it him?

“This is all messed up,” Naruto mumbled to himself.  

This wasn’t how he’d imagined things would have played out.  After he’d left, everything was supposed to be all right; the others wouldn’t have had to worry about him anymore and could move on with happier lives.  Instead, there was this: a muted reflection of the future he’d fantasized about.  Lives had progressed but they carried the burden of a nervousness that seemed to revolve around him.  It was disheartening, and he couldn’t bring himself to accept it.

He wanted to fix it.  He _needed_ to fix it.  Somewhere in the hazy fog of his memory he had believed that his presence here wouldn’t have benefitted everyone.  Naruto couldn’t remember why specifically; he just _knew_.  But it didn’t help him understand things any better.  He was going to make things right, and in order to do that, he needed some guidance.

Instinctively, he looked inward.  His thoughts fixed on the place deep within his mind where he knew Kurama occupied.  Naruto pictured the metaphysical walls of the tunnels that led to Kurama’s cage.  When they manifested, the section didn’t have the industrial piping and grunge that it usually embodied.  Instead, it was a dimly lit stone corridor with torches dispersed intermittently along each wall.

He regarded his surroundings curiously before calling out.

“Kurama.”

His voice echoed off the walls and ricocheted down the hallway.  To his left, one of the torch lights flickered.  Then he felt a heavy presence suddenly hovering behind him.  Naruto spun around to find an amused Kurama leaning casually against the wall.  It was in its humanoid form.

“Hmm, you’re seeking me out now?” Kurama asked, tone cavalier, “Surely, something must be wrong.”

The blond gave it a flat look and frowned slightly.  “You know, I really didn’t come for the asshole treatment,” he said, frank.  Then his expression evened out, “I came because I wanted a friend’s advice.”

Kurama looked at him strangely before straightening its posture and taking two steps away from the wall.  The soft glow of the corridor’s torchlight emphasized the red flame patterns at the hem of its robe.

“F-rien-d?”  Each syllable slowly rolled off Kurama’s tongue as if it were an alien language.  “If that’s how you describe our relationship, brat, then you have a very strange definition of friendship,” it finished.

Naruto grimaced at this point.  It was true that most of their past interactions could only be described as divisive, and Kurama had had no qualms about showing its desire to undermine Naruto’s control of its power.  But he found the Kyuubi to be an incredibly fickle creature.  Where it had once openly attempted to weaken the seal of its prison, it was now more collaborative and even supportive.  And though they still bickered and insulted one another, Naruto felt his statement did ring true; they were friends.

Kurama had consoled him—in its own shrewd way—when his wife had died, and it constantly reminded him of how he needed to be a stronger man for his son.  Most of all, he remembered how it had enigmatically told him that understanding who he was would help him move past his fear.

These were the things that made Naruto trust Kurama, and that was why he wanted its counsel.

“Whatever you may think, I still see you as a comrade.  You’ve been with me all my life,” Naruto affirmed.  “Why would I overlook that?”

Kurama’s face faltered.  A genuine look of surprise invaded its expression, but the moment was brief.  Its countenance quickly shifted into an annoyed frown, and it turned away from him.

“You are just as annoying as he is,” it grumbled.

“Who?” Naruto asked, puzzled.

Kurama ignored his question and began walking further down the corridor.

“If you want that advice, then follow me,” it threw over its shoulder.

 

—.o.—

 

When they emerged from the corridor, Naruto found himself in an unexpected setting: the kitchen of his old apartment in Konoha.

It looked exactly like it should have, dishes in the sink and random cups of instant ramen lying about on every available surface.  A scattered pile of mail sat at one end of the kitchen table.  Underneath it the covers of a few raunchy magazines peeked out.  One of them was blatantly a gay pictorial.

A lopsided grin snuck its way onto Naruto’s face when he saw this, and he chuckled.  He remembered when Jiraiya gave him those magazines for his fourteenth birthday.  He’d been both excited and embarrassed to receive them.  It was the first time Jiraiya had openly addressed the topic of his sexuality outside the context of playful teasing.  The old man had claimed he wanted to make sure Naruto had all the tools he needed in order to become a healthy and virile young man.  He’d also claimed that he’d thrown in that extra piece of reading material just in case the blond had more “exotic” tastes.

Thinking back on it as an adult, Naruto wasn’t sure if it was a good or bad thing Jiraiya never raised any children of his own.  The sannin’s reassuringly supportive—and at times, comically inappropriate—manner had always been applied when Naruto needed it the most.

“Why here?”  He looked back at Kurama, his smile settling comfortably on his lips.

Kurama had pulled out one of the table’s chairs and sat down.  It then propped its feet up onto the seat of another chair.  Naruto raised a curious eyebrow.  It was an interesting sight, witnessing the fox adopt such human mannerisms.

Kurama folded its arms.  “A familiar setting could help your thought process.”

Taking a seat in the table’s remaining chair, Naruto nodded in mild agreement.

“That’s actually not a bad idea.”

“Of course it’s not,” Kurama scoffed.  “You forget I’m centuries older than you, brat.  I’m better at this than you are.”

Naruto’s smile fell away instantly.  Obviously the fox couldn’t help itself, he thought.

“Again, you’re being an asshole,” he said with a frown.  

“Whatever.” Kurama shrugged.  

Rolling his eyes but deciding to let Kurama’s attitude pass, the blond refocused on the reason they’d come here.

“I’m pretty sure you’re aware of what’s going on,” he began.  “They’re not locking me up, but they’re giving me six months to prove why they shouldn’t.”  Naruto couldn’t keep himself from scowling,  “I’ve been demoted, of all things.  And if I’m going to stay,I have to start from scratch.”

“They’re bringing you back under control.  None of this is surprising,” Kurama said off-handedly.  It tilted its head thoughtfully and considered him as it spoke again, “But you say ‘if I’m going to stay.’  You should already know whether you’re going to stay here or not.  That’s the first thing that matters.”

“Well, it’s not like I have much of a choice,” Naruto said.

“You’ve always had a choice, brat.  Telling them where you’ve been for the last decade and you wanting to stay are two different things.  Must I remind you whose vessel you are?  You are a very powerful individual, Naruto.  No one can make you do anything you don’t want to do without expending a lot of effort.  As much as I abhor being imprisoned, quite a few people had to die in order to do so.  If you truly don’t want to be in Konoha, that’s what may need to happen.”

Naruto grimaced at the grisly reference to the event that had bound him and Kurama together.  The serious expression the fox gave him made him uncomfortable.  What Kurama spoke of was much too close to the biting accusations and epithets the villagers had thrown at him during his youth.  Naruto would never be that person.  He began to shake his head, denying the case Kurama was making.

“No,” he said emphatically, “I have no intention of killing anyone.”

“Then wouldn’t that mean you _want_ to stay?” Kurama countered.

Naruto hesitated with his response, not sure if he wanted to concede Kurama’s point.  Weary of what would come next, he answered: “Y-yes … to some degree, I guess.  But—”

“If that’s so, then why would you ever want to stay anywhere without your boy?”

Kurama’s accusation cut him off with the brutality of a razor’s edge.  It was flippant with its subtlety, but Naruto still felt ambushed by it.  His brow furrowed into a heavy frown as he became indignant at Kurama’s implication.

“Don’t even go there,” Naruto asserted, angrily, “I know what you’re implying, and that’s not it.  I would never make such a decision so carelessly!”  Kurama had to know how desperately he was trying to keep his son safe.  His indecision concerning Kanaye wasn’t about finding some excuse to get rid of the boy.

“Kanaye is just a child, and I’m trying to do what’s best for him.  He doesn’t know about the shinobi world, or all its dangers—and why should he?  What’s the point of exposing him to the ugly truth of that kind of survival?”

For all the intensity of his words, Naruto’s tirade was met with the opposing presence of Kurama’s grin.  The creature’s shoulders began to shake as it let loose a guttural laugh.  The noise rang through the kitchen in rhythmic waves, ferrying in an air of condescension and vicious humor.  It made Naruto bristle further.

“What the hell are you laughing about?” he demanded.

The fox’s laughter melted into a devious smirk and it looked at him, a playful glint in its eyes.  “I’m laughing at _you_ , brat.”

At Naruto’s affronted expression, it continued,  “Isn’t it ironic to hear you speak like that, considering the annoying way you used to go on when you were younger?  ‘I’ll show ‘em my way of the ninja,’ you’d said. ‘I’ll be the greatest nin they ever saw!’”  Kuruma’s eyes twinkled with a hint of cruelty, “‘Don’t underestimate me!  I don’t quit, and I don’t run … No matter what, I’ll be Hokage one day!’”

Ice water slowly gathered in Naruto’s veins as his past declarations were flung back at him.  Not for the first time, he felt a deeply rooted shame spread through his chest and anchor itself firmly in his gut.  It was followed by a consuming numbness that seemed to seize control of his entire body.

Being forced to acknowledge how different his life had turned out from what he’d thought it would be was difficult. And Kurama’s steady stream of reproof made the truth a bitter and undesirable thing to face.  Naruto knew that he’d screwed up, but how could he have ever anticipated the events that happened to him after those naïve days?

“Don’t you fucking dare, Kurama,” Naruto warned, refusing to become a useless victim to the Kyuubi’s words.  “You won’t make this all about me.  That is not what I came here for.”

“And why wouldn’t it be about you,” Kurama asked, sweetly.  “Most things here begin and end with you, don’t they?”

It placed a pensive finger against its chin and tapped absently, as if lost in thought.  “I’ll offer you this: maybe the reason you fear letting Kanaye stay here in Konoha is because you’re worried that what happened to you will happen to him?  He shares that same youthful vigor for life you once had.  Are you up for the challenge of keeping those kinds of convictions from being snuffed out again?  Or are you afraid he might end up like you—someone who runs away from his shortcomings?”

Naruto flinched back from that final jab.  He looked off to the side, away from Kurama’s mocking stare.  He didn’t know what to say.  Regardless of how much he resented the things Kurama said, a part of him couldn’t find the confidence to disagree with them.  He sighed heavily, pulling his mouth into a grim expression.

Kurama smiled at his conceding silence.  Then it shrugged its shoulders dismissively and threw its hands up in a nonchalant manner. “But if you’d rather a less introspective outlook, sending Kanaye back to your farming village could be a gambit.  He could continue to live a quiet and sheltered life there, or with you becoming an active ninja again, it could make him an easy target for your enemies.”

Naruto raised his eyes back to Kurama’s face. “You could have led with that piece of advice first.”

Kurama smirked.

A few more contemplative moments went by before Naruto decided to speak again.

“Earlier, when I was with Jiraiya, you didn’t want me telling him the truth—why?” he asked.  

Naruto felt compelled to confront Kurama on this.  Much of the fox’s criticisms were about him not meeting problems head on, and yet it had threatened him into keeping up his charade.

The mirth occupying Kurama’s expression slipped away into an irritated frown.  It rolled its eyes at him and made a disgusted sound.

“It would be nice if you used your brain more often, brat,” it said, folding its arms.

“I’m serious,” Naruto insisted.  “I didn’t understand.  If there was ever a time to speak about what happened, it would have been then.  Jiraiya was the best person for that.”

An abrupt screech filled the kitchen as Kurama callously kicked the other chair away from it.  It planted its feet firmly on the ground and glowered at him.

“Use.  Your.  Damn.  Brain, Naruto,” it fumed.  “What exactly would you have told him?  That you don’t remember anything about after you left, or how you don’t know how you ended up in that village you’ve been living in?  Would you have told him about the coma you were in for three months prior to waking up there?  Or that you had tampered with the seal of the creature they’d locked inside you?”

Kurama clucked its tongue in annoyance, “In the time you’ve been pretending you weren’t a shinobi, _I_ never forgot.  You must think about what is happening to you, Naruto.  You are a missing-nin, and in the eyes of some, you are considered a compromised piece of equipment.  You’re in possession of something very powerful.  You’ve been lucky that those who've dealt with you so far still hold so much sentimentality for you.  It’s been distracting them from this fact, but it makes you no less suspicious.

“The time for naïve trust is gone.  You must think carefully about the things you say and the things you do.  Because it is not that woman, your Hokage, you need to worry about.  It is the people she has to convince.  They are the one’s who want to tighten your leash.”

Naruto stared back at the Kyuubi, worried.  He considered the basis of its reasoning; could he have trusted Jiraiya to understand his circumstances?  Admittedly, when he’d initially evaded all the questions thrown at him, Naruto had only been thinking of keeping his distance.  Keeping himself separate meant that it would’ve been easier to leave, but Kurama’s words were imparting a new logic on him.

“I … hadn’t thought of that,” he said artlessly.

“Of course you didn’t,” Kurama snapped.  “All too often you think with your emotions and not with your head, brat.”

Anger flared up in Naruto.  “Then why don’t you help enlighten me some more?” he retaliated.  He was tired of playing Kurama’s verbal whipping boy.  “Why don’t you tell me exactly _why_ I can’t remember anything from after I left, and how exactly I’d ended up half-dead and in a coma in the first place.”

“Ha!” Kurama barked, bitterly.  “Now you’re suddenly interested in knowing?  A decade of avoiding the truth and now you want to know everything?”

“Yes, it’s about time you stopped hiding things from me!” Naruto snarled.

Silence.

All at once the air around them stilled, and Kurama fixed him with a humorless stare.

“Hiding,” it said, voice taking on an ominous pitch.  To his credit, Naruto ignored the prickling sensation that ran down his spine at Kurama’s tone and continued to glare.

“ _Hiding_ ,” Kurama repeated angrily.  “ _I_ am not hiding anything that _you_ did not want hidden from yourself,” it spat.  “ _I_ have upheld my end of our bargain.  Do not blame me for your own desperation.”

Naruto blinked, suddenly blindsided.

“What?” he asked, voice barely over a whisper, “What are you talking about?”

Kurama leveled him with an irritated scowl and folded its arms.  “What do you think I’m talking about, Naruto?”  Its question hung between them defiantly, making Naruto pause.

He wasn’t sure if he wanted to take Kurama’s bait and continue down the path their conversation was turning.  A sinking feeling began to crawl its way down into the pit of his stomach.  How exactly did Kurama expect him to respond to that?  Suddenly, he found himself looking around the kitchen.  The scene before them seemed innocuous and nothing unusual stood out.  Yet, a thought occurred to Naruto that had him belabored with more dread: when was the last time he could imagine the details of his old apartment so clearly?

Naruto’s eyes jerked back to Kurama.  “You can’t be serious?”

Even as he spoke, Naruto’s mind began to race.  He tried to think back to the time he’d left Konoha and the day he’d written his letter, but the memory was fleeting.  It tapered off like an unfinished sentence, and conjuring further images about specific things became difficult.  All he had was the implied feeling of _knowing_ something happened, before his thoughts abruptly fell off into nothing.  This chasm of emptiness in his memory, which represented the year and half of his life after leaving, was already familiar.  It had been one of the first things he’d noticed once he’d woken up from his coma.  The overwhelming feeling of panic that had seized him back then, when he’d become aware of it, had almost suffocated him.  But Kurama had stepped in to calm him down and informed him about their deal—telling Naruto of how, in exchange for saving his life, he’d agreed to free some of the fox’s essence.

Naruto swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat.  Why hadn’t he pushed Kurama on the details of his memory loss before?  Had he been so caught up with trying to cope with his partial amnesia that he’d ignored such a glaring factor?

“So that’s the reason why I can’t remember anything, because I asked you not to let me?”

Kurama considered him for a moment.  Its unnaturally red eyes stared back at him, unblinking.  

“Perhaps,” it said, leaning back in its chair—arms still folded,  “There may be hope for you yet.”

Taking in a deep, calming breath, Naruto exhaled.  He stamped down the roiling mass of  uneasiness gathering in his gut.  He couldn’t afford to panic over this new revelation—not when there were so many other things already threatening to overwhelm him.  He needed to hold fast to his shaky resolve.

“But why would I ask you to do this?” Naruto questioned, voice sounding more subdued than he felt.  

“I’m not the one you should be asking that question,” Kurama answered.

Naruto closed his eyes, grimacing in frustration.  He clenched his fists while taking in another deep breath.  

“Should I even bother continuing this conversation?” he grounded out, shooting an irritated glare in Kurama’s direction.  

His ire grew when he saw the slow grin creeping its way along the fox’s face.  Kurama propped an elbow on the edge of the table, then rested its chin on the back of its hand.

“You could, but expect no hand holding from me,” it offered.

The urge to punch the creature in its smug mouth sparked bright and strong in Naruto’s chest.  He shot up from his chair and flung a gesturing arm out toward the kitchen they occupied.

“Fine, if you insist on being an asshole!” he yelled.  “At least tell me if this is your doing,” he waved toward the room again.  “Are you helping me remember _this_?”

“I’m not doing anything, brat.  In fact, I’m actively doing nothing,” Kurama looked up at him with an amused expression.

Naruto’s lips pressed into a grim line.  His brow felt as if it’d been permanently knitted into a scowl ever since he’d begun his questioning.  Yet, he thought, perhaps Kurama had a point.  Maybe he did need to start depending on his own ingenuity again if he wanted to get any real answers.  The gravity of his situation was revealing just how important it was for him to shed his mantle of being a simple farmer.

He brought his arm back to his side and said, “I don’t even know if I fully believe you.”

Kurama snorted, giving him a flat look, “Trust is such a precarious venture, isn’t it, Naruto?”

Naruto frowned, then after a moment, sighed; he let some of the tension in his stance loosen.  

“Yeah, I guess it is,” he replied.

Absently, his gaze drifted toward the entrance door just beyond the kitchen threshold.  He stared at it; an odd feeling suddenly washing over him.  Something urged him to go to it, as if it was imperative that he did so.  Naruto sent Kurama a weary glance, but the fox’s expression hadn’t changed.  He looked back at the door, still hesitant.  When the feeling persisted, Naruto resigned himself to moving toward the entrance.  

As he drew closer, each step he took began to feel strangely weighted.  Once he reached the doorway, he stop.  Something kept him from continuing forward.

Standing there, unable to proceed, Naruto started to tremble.  He couldn’t explain why, but he suddenly felt scared.  The longer he stood there the more this feeling of terror grew.  He braced himself against the frame of the threshold in an attempt to calm down; a light sweat had already broken out on his skin.

“W-why can’t I—” he peered over his shoulder.  Kurama was gone.  

This startled him out of his paralysis.  Stumbling as he turned around, Naruto stepped back into the kitchen.

“Kuruma?” he called out, eyes searching the area.  Unlike before, there was no indication that he’d been heard.  Outside of the familiar disorder of his old apartment, there was no sign of anyone else being there.

The longer Naruto waited for a reply, the angrier he became.  An irritated growl rumbled in the back of his throat—all his previous fear forgotten.  

The Kyuubi was such a capricious little shit.

Abruptly, the sound of clumsy movement behind him caught Naruto’s attention.  He whirled around just in time to catch a glimpse of shaggy blond hair disappearing into the hallway adjacent to the kitchen entrance.  He ran over to the doorway, intent on catching this newcomer before they fled deeper into the apartment.  But when he reached it, Naruto froze in his tracks.

Halfway down the hall, two forms stumbled their way through the passage, pawing at one another with frenzied, impassioned hands.  They had the stature and wiry muscles of teenage boys, and Naruto immediately recognized the messy crop of blond hair as belonging to his younger self.  His seventeen year-old double shifted to the side and forced his partner up against the wall.  The other boy huffed out a short laugh before meeting younger Naruto halfway for another deep kiss.  There was no mistaking his dark hair and pale complexion.

Naruto’s heart skipped a beat when he identified seventeen year-old Sasuke.  The same flutter of surprise twisted itself into the cold burn of something sad and vaguely nostalgic.  

Only when the tingling feeling that fringed this pain became sharper, did he realize he’d been holding his breath.  Then his trance broke, and Naruto gulped down a lung full of much-needed air.

It wasn’t long before younger Sasuke pushed both teens away from the wall.  Simultaneously, the other blond used their momentum to direct them toward the open bedroom door at the end of the hall.  Their breathy groans trailed behind them as they disappeared into the room, like a siren’s song, enticing Naruto to take an unconscious step forward.  

He stopped himself.  Was this a lost memory, or some weirdly redolent dream?  Maybe Kurama was playing a cruel joke on him just because it could.

Naruto didn’t know.  Any explanation he might find laid at the end of a hallway he hadn’t been able to visualize in over a decade.  

Caught between indecision and curiosity, he finally decided to let himself move ahead.  The hall seemed to shrink as he stepped into it, and the simmering feeling of familiarity grew.  

Soon he reached the bedroom door.

 _“You getting cold feet?”_ a voice whispered.

He peered into the room and found Sasuke seated at the edge of the bed, alone.  The other male sat leaning back on his elbows, legs hanging over the edge, and a smirk on his face.  He stared ahead intently, as if seeing something only he could.  Then his eyes slid shut, and he sucked in a deep breath between his clenched teeth.  When he exhaled it came out in a quivering moan.

Naruto watched, enthralled.  His gaze followed the natural line that led from Sasuke’s lips, down along his Adam’s apple, to his bare chest.  His mouth went a little dry when he took notice of the unzipped front of Sasuke’s pants.  Seeing Sasuke like this—remembering Sasuke like this...

_“... We both know how much you want me.”_

Naruto was hovering over him, feeling immensely turned on by the way Sasuke kept goading him.  Sasuke’s hand had made its way up his arm and was moving down his chest.

_“Naruto …”_

Sasuke was arching back underneath him, groaning for him to go faster.  He’d reached back and gripped Naruto’s thigh the same time Naruto pulled his hips back further.

_“Don’t be an idiot, dobe.”_

They were on the couch in Sasuke’s apartment; Naruto’s head in his lap.  He knew Sasuke was struggling not to smile.  He could hear it in his soft baritone.    Naruto was beaming up at him, regardless.  It was okay if they sat like this for a while.  It wasn’t like they did this often.

_“It figures you’d like it like this ...”_

His head was still pounding from the brawl they’d just had.  Naruto was dizzy and couldn’t remember what they’d been fighting about, but he didn’t care.  Yes, Sasuke was a dick; and he deserved to be punched again.  But Naruto didn’t want him to stop touching him.  Sasuke’s breath was heavy and warm again his skin.  Naruto held him tighter, moaning.

_“My problem is you! … You never just go away ...”_

Naruto felt as if his heart would shatter in his chest.  Why was Sasuke saying these things to him?  Didn’t that bastard know how much he cared about him—how much he loved him?

Naruto blinked, letting his memories encase him in their bittersweet embrace.  His feet moved on their own volition, taking him across the bedroom to stand in front of the young man sitting on the bed.  Sasuke’s smirk remained in place, but his eyes shifted their focus to Naruto’s face.  Slowly, his expression changed.  He sat up off his elbows and peered up at Naruto with a worried look in his eyes.

 _“Why?”_ Sasuke spoke directly to him.

“What do you mean ‘why’?” the words slipped past Naruto’s lips without a thought.  He’d spoken them before, in another time, to answer the same question.

_“Why do you feel this way about me?  Why now?”_

A sad smile forced its way onto Naruto’s face as he reached up to gently touch Sasuke’s cheek.  The familiarity of it struck something deep within him.

“I don’t know,” he whispered, “Why not?”

 

—.o.—

 

Naruto jolted awake to the feeling of something landing on top of his head.  His hand shot up to grab at the thing—only to encounter a small foot.  Confused, and a little groggy, he blinked a few times before shifting his head out of the way to look up.  At some point in the night he’d fallen asleep and slipped from sitting on the edge of Kanaye’s bed to being slumped over on the floor.  This had left him vulnerable to his son’s occasional habit of acrobatics in his sleep (as well as serious stiffness in Naruto’s lower back and shoulders).

He snorted in amusement, carefully getting to his feet and maneuvering Kanaye so he lay fully on the bed.  Somehow the boy had managed to roll himself halfway down the mattress at an angle.  The sheets were left hanging haphazardly off to one side while Kanaye clutched a pillow in an outstretched fist like it was a lifeline; all the while snoring away with a dreamy smile on his face.  The scene was ridiculous but endearing, and it amazed Naruto how much his son seemed to mirror his younger self.  He had no idea how genetics had mastered such a thing.

However, thoughts of his childhood and his son soon had Naruto’s mind backtracking to the conversation with Kurama.

Why would he want to stay anywhere without his boy?  

Kurama’s question circled around his head for a few long moments as Naruto reconsidered it.  Why _would_ he live anywhere apart from his son?  Sickness had taken Kanaye’s mother from them, and though they still had Kaiya’s parents to maintain their little family, Naruto was his father.  Wasn’t it important to continue being that for him?  Naruto of all people knew how it felt to be without that foundation of parental love.

He sighed and stretched his stiff shoulders and back.  Absently, he noted how quiet Kurama was choosing to be.  This was fine with him.  He’d rather not deal with the creature for a while.  It had already given him enough to think about.

Looking away from Kanaye, he glanced over at the small digital clock resting on the nightstand between their beds; it was early morning, just before sunrise.  Then he turned to look over at his unslept in bed.  In the dim light of the room, his uniform and forehead protector continued their silent vigil near the edge of the mattress.  

Naruto walked over to them and picked up the headband.  His thumb brushed the dulled surface of its metal plate.  He could hear Sasuke’s sarcastic voice sniping at him about being unable to lose it, even after he’d left it behind.

Sasuke.

His thumb stilled, and he held the forehead protector properly in both hands.  It seemed that he’d left behind more than he’d thought.  

The memories of his last few months in the village were still incomplete, but the better half of that year—which encapsulated all that time spent with Sasuke—was clearer now.  And knowing how intimate their friendship had turned back then had Naruto’s mind reeling.

Could that be why Sasuke was so angry?  It would explain a lot if it was.  But Naruto recalled their last fight before he’d left, and the cruel things Sasuke had said to him.  The other ninja had wanted him gone.  Why would he hold it against Naruto that he left?

This had Naruto’s thoughts pivoting back to Kurama’s admission that Naruto had wanted to forget these things.

But why?

The pain of Sasuke’s rejection had broken his heart, but Naruto couldn’t fathom why he would want to forget anything beyond that.  How desperate could he have been to want something like that?  

The truth about his and Kurama’s deal left Naruto with so many questions.  He wasn’t sure if the fragmented nightmares and ominous dreams he’d been experiencing were also related to his memory loss.

Frowning, Naruto thought about all the things involving his amnesia that he’d avoided or ignored.  It was obvious that if he’d looked a little deeper, he would have noticed something was amiss sooner.  He’d never asked Kurama how exactly he’d managed to free only part of it.  The seal on Kurama’s cage was a complex construct of chakra, and Naruto’s grasp on fuuinjutsu was far from advanced enough to manipulate something like that.  He would have only been able to disrupt it, which could have been enough to force a clumsy removal.

Reflexively, Naruto turned his attention back to Kurama.  However, he felt the fox’s presence slink away deeper into his subconscious.  A hint of amusement whispered after it, and Naruto grimaced in annoyance.  Kurama seemed bent on forcing him to figure things out on his own.  It was aggravating.  The least it could do was answer one question.  

Naruto wanted to know if Kurama could hide his memories on request, couldn’t it give them back to him just as easily?

Again, it felt as if Kurama was smirking at him.  Naruto’s frown deepened.

He’d told the Kyuubi that he considered it a friend, and truthfully, he knew he meant that.  Perhaps there was a reason he needed to find things out for himself.  Whatever that reason was, he had to trust it was for the best ... maybe.

He refocused on his forehead protector.  He would face this problem head on this time—no more running.  The words Kaiya had given him had helped Naruto get through the past decade, but it was time for him to take back who he was if he wanted to fix himself, salvage the things that had been important to him, and protect his family.

He was Uzumaki Naruto, and he would always be number one at surprising—even if that meant himself.

 

**—. &.o.&.—**


End file.
